Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), India’s second-largest public sector refinery, is planning to invest Rs 18,000-20,000 crore over the next five years for setting up a petrochemical plant and expansion of the Kochi refinery.
The company is looking at diversification into petrochemicals by building a niche speciality chemical project at a cost of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore at Kochi, and plans to rope in a multinational partner for the project, BPCL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.K. Singh, said today.
“We are expanding the Kochi refinery from 9.5 million tonnes per year to 15 million tonnes a year,” he said on the sidelines of the third India Africa Hydrocarbon Conference here.
From the expansion, BPCL is looking at manufacturing some propylene derivatives, which are currently imported and not manufactured in the country.
The petrochemical project would use feedstock from the expanded refinery and the projects are likely to be completed in the next five years.
“While the refinery expansion will be funded by BPCL, for the petrochemical plant we are looking for a foreign partner preferably a licensor of the speciality chemical we intend to manufacture,” he said.
Besides the Kochi refinery expansion, BPCL plans to add capacity at the new joint venture grassroots refinery it commissioned this year at Bina in Madhya Pradesh and also add capacity at its Mumbai refinery.
Mr Singh said the Bina refinery is proposed to be expanded by 3 mt to 9 mt a year. BPCL’s 12-mt Mumbai refinery would add 2-3 million tonne per annum through yield optimisation and operational efficiencies.
Bina refinery, which was inaugurated in May, is expected to stabilise by year-end. Besides Mumbai, Kochi and Bina refinery, BPCL also operates a 3-mt Numaligarh Refinery in Assam.