Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is planning a capital expenditure of ₹1.5-.7-lakh crore over the next five years and is working on an offer document for a rights issue of shares.

In an analyst call to discuss the State-owned oil refiner’s third quarter results, the management said that it would try to complete the rights issue within the current fiscal that ends in March.

The company has scaled up its investment plans. Last year at its annual general meeting, the Chairman and Managing Director G Krishnakumar had pegged its capex at ₹1.5-lakh crore.

One of the big investments that the company is making is the ethylene cracker project in Bina where it has a planned outlay of ₹49,000 crore, the single largest investment in its history.

The company also expects to restart the stuck Mozambique gas project soon. The $20-billion project has been under force majeur since 2021 following security concerns in the region. The company has invested $1.6 billion so far in the project and expects cash to flow in from FY28.

Q3 FY24 results

In the third quarter of FY24, BPCL reported a 82 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at ₹3,181 crore, though revenue declined 2.5 per cent to ₹1.3-lakh crore.

In the first nine months of FY24, the gross refining margin declined to $14.72/bbl from $20.08 a year ago, due to special additional excise duty and road, infrastructure cess.

In April to December, it achieved a throughput of 29.57 million tonne (mt), while market sales were at 37.86 mt. It also expanded its retail network adding 501 new fuel stations and 112 CNG stations.

Red Sea crisis

The ongoing crisis in the Red Sea were not having any effect on its crude imports, the management said.

Oil prices are expected to rule in the range $80-90/bbl over the next six months. India’s demand for gasoline is seen rising 4-5 per cent over the next five years and that of diesel by 1.5-2 per cent.

Shares of BPCL rose over 5 per cent intra-day and ended 2.3 per cent higher at ₹504.10 on the NSE.

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