BPCL to form JV with matrix marine

Indian state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited plans to form a 50-50 joint venture with U.S.-based Matrix Marine Fuels to break into the Singapore bunker fuels market. Matrix Marine Fuels has been in the bunker oil business on the U.S. Gulf Coast since 1997 and is active in the Houston region. The company is owned by Marquard & Bahls, a European independent oil company that also owns Oiltanking, a tank terminal operator. BPCL operates a 12 million metric ton per year refinery in Mumbai and a 7.5 million metric ton per year refinery at Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala. (September 21, 2007)