Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd plans to start a trading office in Singapore in the near future to procure crude for its refineries and trade oil products, its head of refineries, R. Ramachandran, said late on Wednesday.
"We will open office in the near future," he said, without specifying a timeline.
However, a company source, who declined to be named, said the office may start operations by September.
BPCL could become the second Indian state refiner after Indian Oil Corp to open a Singapore trading outpost as Indian buyers hunt for competitively priced spot cargoes from the Asian oil-trading hub.
The company has started looking for office space and plans to transfer up to four staff from Mumbai to Singapore initially, Ramachandran said.
The staff strength would grow as the company expands its trading business in Singapore, he said.
BPCL along with its subsidiaries operate refineries that can process 730,000 barrels per day of crude oil, equivalent to about 15 percent of India's overall refining capacity.
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