Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

oil and gas company, headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. It is India's second-largest government-owned downstream oil producer, whose operations are overseen by the

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG) is a List of Indian agencies, ministry of the Government of India responsible for the exploration, production, refining, distribution, marketing, import, export, and conservation of petroleum, ...

. It operates three refineries in Bina,

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

and

. BPCL was ranked 309th on the ''Fortune'' Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations in 2020, and 1052nd on ''Forbes'' Global 2000 in 2023.

History

1891 to 1976

The company today known as BPCL started off as the Rangoon Oil and Exploration company set up to explore the new discoveries off

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(now Myanmar) during the British colonial rule over India. In 1889 during vast industrial development, an important player in the South Asian market was the Burmah Oil Company. Though incorporated in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in 1886, the company grew out of the enterprises of the Chef Rohit Oil Company, which had been formed in 1871 to refine crude oil produced from primitive hand dug wells in

Upper Burma Upper Myanmar ( or , also called Upper Burma) is one of two geographic regions in Myanmar, the other being Lower Myanmar. Located in the country's centre and north stretches, Upper Myanmar encompasses six inland states and regions, including ...

. In 1928,

Asiatic Petroleum Company Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) was a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies founded in 1903. It operated in Asia in the early 20th century. The corporate headquarters were on The Bund in Shanghai, China. The division teste ...

(India) started cooperation with Burma Oil Company. Asiatic Petroleum was a joint venture of Royal Dutch, Shell and Rothschilds formed to address the monopoly of

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

, which also operated in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

. This alliance led to the formation of Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company of India Limited. Burmah Shell began its operations with import and marketing of Kerosene. In the mid-1950s, the company began to sell LPG cylinders to homes in India and further expanded its delivery network. It also marketed

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

and petrol in cans in order to reach remote parts of India. In 1951, the Burmah shell began to build a

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

Trombay Trombay is an eastern suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), India. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is located there. History In 1548, Trombay and Chembur Chembur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, ͡ʃembuːɾ is an upmarket large subur ...

(Mahul, Maharashtra) under an agreement with the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Nationalisation

In 1976, the company was nationalized under the Act on the Nationalisation of Foreign Oil companies ESSO (1974), Burma Shell (1976) and Caltex (1977). On 24 January 1976, the Burmah Shell was taken over by the Government of India to form Bharat Refineries Limited. On 1 August 1977, it was renamed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. It was also the first refinery to process newly found indigenous crude

Mumbai High Field The Mumbai High Field, formerly called the Bombay High Field, is an offshore oilfield off the west coast of Mumbai, in Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about of water. The oil operations are run by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ON ...

In 2003, the government attempted to privatize the company. However, following a petition by the

Centre for Public Interest Litigation The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) is an Indian non-governmental organisation that conducts litigation on matters of public interest. The CPIL was established by late Justice V. M. Tarkunde, a former judge of the Supreme Court of In ...

, the Supreme Court restrained the Central government from privatizing

Hindustan Petroleum Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is an Indian public sector undertaking in Petroleum industry, petroleum and natural gas industry, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which ...

and Bharat Petroleum without the approval of Parliament. As counsel for the CPIL,

Rajinder Sachar Rajindar Sachar (22 December 1923 – 20 April 2018) was an Indian lawyer and a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. He was a member of United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and also served as a c ...

and

Prashant Bhushan Prashant Bhushan (born 15 October 1956) is an Indian author and a public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Ha ...

said that the only way to disinvest in the companies would be to repeal or amend the Acts by which they were nationalized in the 1970s. As a result, the government would need a majority in both houses to push through any privatization. Parliament enacted the Repealing and Amending Act, 2016 in May 2016 which repealed the legislation that had nationalized the company. In 2017, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited received

Maharatna Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) in India are government-owned entities in which at least 51% of stake is under the ownership of the Government of India or state governments. These types of firms can also be a joint venture of multiple PSUs. ...

status, putting it in the category of government-owned entities in India with the largest market capitalization and consistently high profits. In 2021, BPCL announced plans to invest

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

in order to improve petrochemical capacity and refining efficiencies, over the next five years.

Operations

Bharat Petroleum operates the following refineries: * Mumbai Refinery : Located near

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. It has a capacity of 13 million metric tonnes per annum. *

Kochi Refineries Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) is a crude oil refinery in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest public sector refinery in India with a production capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per year. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited ...

: Located near

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. It has a capacity of 15.5 million metric tonnes per annum. *

Bina Refinery Bina Refinery is an oil refinery located at Bina in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is owned and operated by Bharat Oman Refinery Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. , the capacity of th ...

: Located near Bina,

Sagar district Sagar district () is a Districts of Madhya Pradesh, district of Madhya Pradesh States and territories of India, state in central India. The town of Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar serves as its administrative center. Sagar district is called the ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. It has a capacity of 7.8 million metric tonnes per year. This refinery started as Bharat Oman Refinery Limited (BORL), a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum and OQ company. Incorporated in 1994, BORL also has single point mooring (SPM) system, crude oil terminal (COT) and a long cross-country crude oil pipeline from Vadinar, Gujarat to Bina, Madhya Pradesh. As of April 2021, BORL is a subsidiary of BPCL. They have popular Loyalty Program like Petrocard, Smartfleet. , BPCL was also setting up a

Second-generation biofuels Second-generation biofuels, also known as advanced biofuels, are fuels that can be manufactured from various types of non-food biomass. Biomass in this context means plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel. First-gene ...

refinery at Baulsingha village in

Bargarh district Bargarh District is an administrative district of Odisha state in eastern India. The city of Bargarh is its district headquarters. The district was carved out of the erstwhile district of Sambalpur on 1 April 1993. History In ancient times ...

, Odisha of 100 kilo litre per day capacity. The plant would be using 2 Lakh tonnes of rice straw to generate fuel. In 2024, Bharat Petroleum continued to strengthen its ties with Russia, despite international sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. BPCL held discussions with Russian oil giant Rosneft to secure a long-term deal for up to 6 million metric tons of crude oil. Indian refiners, including BPCL, capitalized on discounted Russian oil, which became more appealing after Western countries halted purchases. However, these actions have drawn criticism for indirectly funding Russia's war machine. While BPCL's officials acknowledged narrowing discounts on Russian oil and potential challenges in exceeding price cap thresholds, the company remains poised to utilize up to 40% Russian crude in its refineries. It involves maintaining controversial partnerships with Russia during its ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

Subsidiaries

Indraprastha Gas Limited, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and the

Government of Delhi The Government of Delhi, officially the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD; ISO: ) is the governing body of India's National Capital Territory of Delhi, whose urban area is the seat of the Government of India. It also ...

to operate the Delhi City Gas Distribution Project.

Petronet LNG Petronet LNG Limited is an Indian oil and gas company formed by the Government of India to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) and set up LNG terminals in the country. It is a joint venture company promoted by the Gas Authority of India Limite ...

, a joint venture company promoted by the Gas Authority of India Limited,

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking which is the largest government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer in the country. It accounts for around 70 percent of India's domestic pro ...

Limited,

Indian Oil Corporation Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL or IOC), trading as IndianOil, is an Indian multinational oil and gas company under the ownership of the Government of India and administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It is ...

Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited to import LNG and set up LNG terminals in the country. Bharat Renewable Energy Limited, a joint venture company promoted by BPCL with Nandan Cleantech Limited (Nandan Biomatrix Limited), Hyderabad and Shapoorji Pallonji Group, through their affiliate, S.P. Agri Management Services Pvt.Ltd. specializes in offering Bio diesel plants, ethanol, bio-diesel plants, Karanj (Millettia pinnata),

Jatropha ''Jatropha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός (''iatros''), meaning "physician", and τροφή (''trophe''), meaning "nutrition", hence the common name ph ...

and Pongamia (Pongamia Pinnata) plantation services, renewable generation services etc. In 2013 Shapoorji Pallonji Group exited the joint venture.

Joint Ventures

* Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited is a joint venture of GAIL and BPCL. *Haridwar Natural Gas Pvt. Ltd., a JV of BPCL and Gail Gas Ltd.

Ownership

The cabinet had cleared a plan to sell 53.3% of its stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) with the rest owned by Foreign Portfolio Investors (13.7%), Domestic Institutional Investors (12%),

Insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

(8.24%) and the balance held by individual share holders. But as of 2024, such a plan is said to be off the table.

Plans of Disinvestment

On 21 November 2019, the

approved the privatization of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. The government invited bids for the sale of its 52.98% stake in the company on 7 March 2020. The Government decided to consolidate the businesses of BPCL before privatization starting with the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL). The Government decided to keep Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL) in the public sector, honouring the Assam Peace Accord. In March 2021, Bharat Petroleum Corporation sold its entire 61.5% stake in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam to a consortium of Oil India Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd. and

Government of Assam The Government of Assam or Assam Government abbreviated as GoAS, is the Subnational legislature, state government of the Indian state of Assam. It consists of the Governors of states of India, Governor appointed by the President of India as th ...

for ₹9,876 crore. BPCL also acquired a 36.62% stake in Bharat Oman Refineries or Bina refinery situated at Bina in Madhya Pradesh, India from OQ company, for ₹2,400 crore. BPCL has been holding 63.4 per cent and OQ 36.6 per cent equity in the company. The Government of Madhya Pradesh has a minor stake in the company through compulsorily convertible warrants. With the acquisition of OQ's entire stake in BORL, BPCL will establish control over BORL. The Indian Government attempted to sell BPCL during fiscal year 2021–2022. However, the sale of BPCL has been pushed to fiscal year 2022–2023, and it has been reported that the Government is building a new strategy for the sale of the company. In addition to this, it has also been reported that rising oil prices, along with increasing development and use of green energy, is leading to delays in the privatisation process. On June, 12 2024, the Petroleum Minister of India informed that any plans of disinvestment is off the table.

References

External links

* * Business data for Bharat Petroleum
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{{authority control Oil and gas companies of India Oil pipeline companies Government-owned companies of India Companies based in Mumbai Energy companies established in 1976 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1976 Indian companies established in 1976 Companies nationalised by the Government of India Indian brands

1976 establishments in Maharashtra Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange Bharat Petroleum