Bharat Petroleum's foray in Gas

Natural gas is seen as a great energy source of the 21st century, and to provide energy security to our customers, BPCL diversified into the gas business. The emerging gas demand in the country provides BPCL with an opportunity to expand its existing portfolio of energy supply.

The Bharat Petroleum Natural Gas Company was an early mover into the gas business, co-promoted Petronet LNG Ltd, along with IOC, ONGC and GAIL. The equity structure consists of 12.5% each by the promoters, 10% by Gaz de France, and 5.2 % by ADB and the balance by public.

PLL along with off takers, has finalised and signed long-term sale purchase agreement with Ras Gas for the supply of 7.5 MMTPA of LNG over a period of 25 years to Dahej Terminal. Recently agreements were also finalised with Exxon Mobil Australia for the supply of around 1.44 MMTPA LNG commencing in 2014-15, to be supplied over a period of 20 years to Kochi Terminal.

Out of the 7.5 MMTPA to be imported at the Dahej terminal, BPCL has marketing rights for 10% of the quantity whereas GAIL and IOC have the marketing rights for 60% and 30% respectively. BPCL’s marketing share at the currently under construction Kochi terminal is 40%.

In addition to being a co-promoter of PLL, BPCL has also been a first mover in the CGD business by co-promoting Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), a Joint Venture with GAIL, by setting up a gas distribution network in NCR. BPCL thereafter also co-promoted three more CGD networks by forming JVCs viz. Sabarmati Gas Ltd (SGL) in Gujarat with GSPC, Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd (MNGL) and Central UP Gas Ltd (CUGL) with GAIL.

BPCL is currently marketing its share of RLNG from Dahej to various customers across the country and supplying RLNG to Mumbai and Kochi Refineries for their own consumption. BPC has developed a vast customer base of gas customers in the country and is currently handling a volume of around 1.5 MMTPA.

Bharat Petroleum along with consortium has been authorized by PNGRB for laying, building and operating cross country pipelines across central India namely Mallavaram-Bhilwara pipeline and Mehsana-Bhatinda-Jammu pipelines.

Bharat Petroleum along with the consortium has also participated in the bidding process initiated by PNGRB for laying, building and operating CGD networks in new geographical areas and for cross country pipelines, forming various consortiums.

In the year 2010, Bharat Petroleum has commenced marketing of LNG by Tank Trucks in collaboration with Inox India Ltd and have commissioned the first pilot project at General Motors, Halol in Gujarat. Many more customers who were not having access to gas pipelines were added thereafter.

After partnering in the major cross country gas pipelines, BPCL Natural Gas SBU has taken another major step to strengthen the infrastructural requirements for meeting natural gas demands of the country, by booking regasification capacity of 1 MMTPA at Petronet LNG terminal at Dahej.

Bharat Petroleum also pioneered LNG bunkering in India, supplying LNG as bunker fuel from Petronet LNG Terminal at Kochi in the year 2015.