State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has chalked out a five-year strategy to diversify its business into other core areas like gas, exploration and production, power generation, increasing its market share and refining capacity, a top company official said.
“With hydrocarbon as our core business, we are aware of the challenges the company is going to face down the line and after an internal exercise, we decided to diversify our business into other areas,” BPCL’s Chairman and Managing Director S. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.
As part of this five-year plan, the company has planned its foray into some specific power segments with an investment ranging between Rs. 600-1,000 crore with a view to generate 500 MW, he said.
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The locations and the fuel medium will be decided later, based on how economical the fuel will be, and most power plants will be joint ventures, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
BPCL is one of the serious players in the city gas segment, taking into account that CNG is taking away some parts of its LPG and retail fuel business, and the company has tied up with many others for city gas distribution and is expected to bag distribution rights in 10-15 cities, he said.
He said that there is pressure on the company to diversify into gas due to several reasons, including the emission norms set by the courts and as fuel gas is cheaper than others.
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