BPCL working on blueprint for Dream Plan  

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) is preparing the blueprint for a five-year strategy called “Dream Plan”. One of the important elements of the plan is to enhance refining capacity to 50 million tons by 2015. Currently, BPCL’s refineries in Mumbai and Kochi have combined capacities of nearly 22 million tons, with an additional three million tons coming in from the Numaligarh Refinery in Assam. The 6 million ton Bina project is set for commissioning very soon which means that the oil major will have 31 million tons of refining capacity by the end of this fiscal. Both the Bina and Kochi refinery expansions will play a key role in the “Dream Plan” objective of reaching 50 million tons by 2015. The pricing element and strategies will have to flow into the Dream Plan, with the recent dismantling of government price controls for petrol and in the future, for diesel fuel as well. We will have to manage our profitability and portfolio, which is already the case with 40% of the existing products such as aviation fuel and lubricants, said Ashok Sinha, chairman and managing director, BPCL. (August 12, 2010)