BPCL to invest ₹2,500 crore in expanding CGD networks during FY25

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) said on Friday that it will invest ₹2,500 crore in the current financial year, ending March 2025, to expand its city gas distribution (CGD) network.

The country’s second largest state-controlled oil marketing company (OMC) has authorisation to lay CGD networks in 26 geographical areas (GAs), of which 25 GAs have been commissioned.

“To support India’s ambition to become a gas-based economy, BPCL invested ₹1,920 crore last year and plans an additional ₹2,500 crore this year, focusing on expanding the CGD network,” BPCL CMD G Krishnakumar said in his address to the company shareholders at the annual general meeting.

Along with its Joint Venture (JV) companies, BPCL has authorisation for 52 GAs covering 154 districts, he added.

“In FY24, the gas business supplied a total of 1,857 thousand tonnes (TT) of gas, of which 726,000 tonnes was consumed internally by our refineries and balance was sold to various customers in the market. The CGD network saw remarkable growth, with sales doubling to 83,000 tonnes,” Krishnakumar informed the shareholders.

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BPCL is actively building a comprehensive gas ecosystem throughout its value chain, from strategic sourcing and partnerships to collaboration on import terminals and regasification facilities, he emphasised.

“We are focused on securing gas transport agreements in major pipelines and expanding our CGD networks to meet the growing gas demand of domestic, retail, commercial, and industrial customers,” the CMD added.

Marketing and Retail business

Krishnakumar pointed out that factors, including a favourable demographic dividend, urbanisation, automobile sales growth, and infrastructure focus, is leading to a surge in domestic consumption.

“Market sales increased by 4.3 per cent Y-o-Y and our market share among PSU OMCs climbed to 27.57 per cent cementing our position as the second largest PSU Oil Marketing Company,” he noted.

In the Retail business, BPCL managed to achieve a 1.1 per cent Y-o-Y growth, reaching a volume of 32.69 million tonnes (MT) during FY24. Against this, PSU OMCs registered a de-growth of 2 per cent during FY24.

Petrol sales witnessed a 5.4 per cent Y-o-Y increase, reaching 10.09 MT in FY24. BPCL’s diesel sales were impacted by the industry-wide decline, but the performance was notably more resilient, with a drop of only 1.6 per cent compared to the overall 5.5 per cent decrease.

“BPCL significantly expanded its retail network, adding approximately 800 new outlets during the year. This growth brings the total number of outlets to over 22,000 today.

To capitalise on the growing demand in emerging markets and along new expressways, BPCL plans to add 4,000 new outlets in the next five years,” Krishnakumar said.

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