BPCL pins hope on expanding overseas, plans Rs 5k cr capex

Monyecontrol Bureau

Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) has lined up a capex plan of around Rs 5,000 crore which will be used to expand capacities at its Bina  and Mumbai refineries. The state-run oil refiner is also keen to invest around Rs 1,500 crore of the overall capex for its upstream activities in Mozambique and Brazil oil blocks in which it owns stakes.

While answering a volley of questions from analysts, S Varadarajan, BPCL's executive director (corporate finance) said the company would also be using around Rs 700 crore for upgrading retail petroleum outlets across cities.

On whether the company is losing any money on the sale of petrol now, the company's management said, after the hike, the firm is able to make nominal margins by not incurring losses as it did, before the latest petrol price revision. Oil companies last week hiked petrol prices by 7.50 /litre as they were losing around Rs 50 crore a day by not raising prices due to political interference.

The officials also pointed out that the company has been compensated  Rs 39,000 crore by the government for selling diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene at controlled rates during the March quarter.

Due to the timely compensation, the company was able to post its first quarterly profit in FY12. BPCL on Friday said its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, rose four-fold Rs 3,962.83 core, year-on-year.
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