BPCL plans mega capex

Mumbai

Sept. 9: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for the capital expenditure in this financial year.
Of this, Mr Ashok Sinha, the chairman and managing director of BPCL, said: “We are planning to spend Rs 2,000 crore to drill nine wells in the blocks in Mozambique. We would also be spending Rs 390 crore for the upgradation of the Kochi refinery and Rs 400 crore for the upgradation of the Mumbai refinery.”
Mr Sinha was speaking to reporters after the company’s annual general meeting. They also would spend about Rs 500 crore to set up 500 petrol pumps across India this fiscal, he added.
The Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh is expected to produce six million tonnes of oil per annum and would be commissioned by March 2010.
“We expect that the under recoveries would be lower in the current financial year as the crude oil prices are at moderate level. I feel that Opec would not cut the production further during this fiscal and the crude oil prices would remain in the range of $60 and $ 70 per barrel.”
If this happens this year then the underrecoveries would be less compared with the last fiscal, he added.
Currently, BPCL is loosing Rs 3.94 per litre of petrol and Rs 2.71 per litre of diesel. The company loses Rs 146 per 14.2 kg LPG cylinder, while on per litre of kerosene it incurs a loss of Rs 16.
Mr Sinha said: “Since last six months, BPCL has stopped supplying air turbine fuel (ATF) to Kingfisher Airlines as the receivables have risen to Rs 341 crore on the account of non-payment of dues. We are thinking of taking legal action against the Kingfisher. However we know that the aviation industry is bleeding due to the crisis.”
Our volumes of ATF have gone down by 20 per cent resulting in a negative impact on profits to the tune of Rs 20 crore, he added.