India’s BPCL sees nearly flat annual crude processing, executive says

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp does not see any major change in its annual crude processing this fiscal year, as it plans to shut a crude unit at its biggest refinery for a month for maintenance, an executive said on Thursday.

BPCL, the country’s third-largest oil refiner, plans to shut its 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude unit and some secondary units at the 310,000 bpd Kochi refinery in southern India from mid-September, said Sanjay Khanna, the company’s head of refineries, at an industry event.

In the last fiscal year ended March 31, BPCL processed nearly 800,000 bpd of crude at its three refineries that have a combined nameplate capacity of 708,000 bpd, he said.

Khanna said his firm meets about half of its imported crude requirements through spot purchases.

He added that BPCL aims to complete an expansion at its Bina refinery in central India to 220,000 bpd from the current 156,000 bpd by mid-2027.

The company hopes to build a 1.2 million ton per year (tpy) petrochemical plant at the Bina refinery by mid-2028, he said, adding the plant would have provision to be expanded to 1.5 million tpy.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Shivam Patel; Editing by Jamie Freed)