BPCL to set up Rs 1,200-cr LPG terminal at Haldia

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) plans to build an import terminal at West Bengal's Haldia, with an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The terminal will help the company meet the rise in demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The company has acquired 35 acres for the purpose and plans to complete the project in three years. BPCL, in its annual report, said as LPG consumption in the country in the domestic segment continues to grow at seven per cent per annum, imports of LPG are increasing. Oil companies are required to make adequate infrastructure arrangements to handle the inc

"We infrastructure in the western and southern regions but there is a problem in the eastern region. The next market for us is Bihar, North-East, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. So our import terminal will come up at Haldia," said a BPCL official.

GROWING LPG DEMAND

• The company has acquired 35 acres for the purpose and plans to complete the project in three years
• The capacity of the planned terminal would be two 15,000-tonne tanks, which will be capable of  handling the VLCC (very large crude carriers) vessels

Currently, BPCL is meeting the demands with imports. "Capacity of the terminal would be two 15,000-tonne tanks, which can handle the VLCC (very large crude carriers) vessels. Necessarily we need to have one propane tank and a butane tank. We will be looking at an expansion later," the official added.

The company expects cooking gas demand to grow six-nine per cent this financial year on the back of lower prices and increasing focus on rural reach.

"We expect cooking gas demand to grow six-nine per cent this financial year as we focus more on reaching out to the under-served markets and the rural areas. This is because of the steep fall in prices," BPCL Chairman and Managing Director S Varadarajan had said this June. He said 50 lakh new LPG customers were added in rural areas last financial year.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, is also constructing a 0.6 million tonnes per annum LPG import facility at Paradip at a cost of Rs 690 crore to meet the cooking gas deficit in the eastern sector. The company this January decided to invest Rs 5,300 crore in setting up an LPG import facility at Paradip in Odisha and laying pipelines.

There has been a demand-supply mismatch for LPG. Last financial year, the country imported 8.33 million tonnes (mt) of LPG, while the total consumption was 18.2 mt. In the previous financial year, imports stood at 6.61 mt and the total demand at 16.29 mt.