Bpcl

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (A)
1. Introduction
Burmah Oil Refineries Ltd. was incorporated in 1952 as a joint venture between Burmah Oil
Company, UK and Shell Petroleum Company by an agreement with the Indian Government
to set up a refinery at Mahul in Mumbai, which went on stream in 1957. In 1976 the Indian
Government nationalized the petroleum industry and acquired 100% equity in Burmah Oil
Refineries and named it Bharat Refineries Ltd. The name was later changed to Bharat
Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) in 1977.
BPCL was an integrated refining and marketing company. It markets a diverse range of
products from petrochemicals, solvents, specialty lubricants, aviation fuel and LPG. The
Mahul refinery had a capacity of 6 million tons per annum and it operated at 127% of the
capacity in the year ending March 2000. It also had an installed capacity of 98000 MT of
benzene, 17600 MT of Toluene, 90000 MT of lubricants and 10950 MT of sulphur. It was
the first Indian industrial unit to obtain ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 certification and the only
Indian Refinery (and one of the 34 refineries worldwide) to achieve a Level 7 on the
International Safety Rating System (ISRS).
BPCL’s retail network was the third largest in the country with around 4,500 retail outlets
(petrol pumps / gas stations), around 950 dealerships for kerosene and light diesel oil, and
1200 LPG distributors. It had 22 LPG bottling plants, 3 lube blending and filling plants, 6
port installations, 13 aviation service stations, 67 company operated depots and 23 dispatch
units. It completed a 250 km long cross-country pipeline between Mumbai and Manmad in
March 1998. It had a market share of around 22% in petroleum products and 20% in LPG. In
2000, the total sales grossed over 36,000 crores of rupees and 18.86 million tons of
petroleum products. Industrial customers contributed to 27% of sales, LPG 7%, aviation fuel
3% and lubricants 0.5% of the total sales. The refinery and the...