BPCL- A Promising Future in Gas
In the strategic vision of Bharat Petroleum to transform into a green and clean energy company, its Gas SBU (strategic Business Unit) is playing an increasingly important role in efficient and timely sourcing of gas for internal requirement of BPCL Refineries, requirement for BPCL’s Retail Business – essentially the City Gas Distribution (CGD) network involving Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections, and bulk sale to customers, – particularly from the fertilizer, power, petrochemicals, glass and steel sectors.
From a climate perspective, natural gas helps the nation towards achieving its long-term emission-reduction goals, thus playing a pivotal role - in building a sustainable future. To fructify this profound shift, our fuel stations are metamorphosing into "energy stations" that offer a bouquet of multiple options like petrol, diesel, and flexi fuels, EV charging facility, CNG and eventually hydrogen. Bharat Petroleum has plans to develop 7,000 such Energy Stations in a few years.
The gas business of Bharat Petroleum can be broadly categorized in two parts –
1. Bulk sales (Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which is sold as a liquid directly through Cryogenic Tank Lorries and Regasified-LNG which is sold through pipelines to industries
2. City Gas Distribution (CGD) sector sales (CNG for vehicles and PNG for domestic as well as industrial/commercial usage).
The Gas SBU handled a total quantity of 1,900 thousand metric tonnes (TMT) of gas during the year 2020-21. Of this, 966 TMT was supplied to Mumbai and Kochi refineries, and 934 TMT to various customers in the fertilizer, power, petrochemicals, City Gas Distribution (CGD), steel and other industries across the country.
With a focused approach towards increasing use of clean fuels, Natural Gas consumption in BPCL Refineries has shown an increase of 9% owing to replacement of liquid fuels in various processes. This has helped in lowering the emission levels.
The Company’s first pilot project of LCNG station (small scale LNG) was commissioned near Aurangabad (Maharashtra) on the Hub & Spoke model for meeting the requirements of CNG for automobile segment and PNG for customers in the domestic, industrial & commercial segment. During the year 2020-21, BPCL joined the ‘Indian Gas Exchange’ platform for leveraging trading opportunities. This will enable the Company to reach a wider spectrum of customers, including Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) customers), thereby enabling a deeper penetration into the gas market.
BPCL and formerly BGRL (wholly owned subsidiary-now merged with BPCL) has been awarded authorization for development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) Networks by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for 25 GAs covering 62 Districts. In addition to the development of the CGD Network, BPCL is present in complete value chain of Natural Gas which will support in increasing the share of Natural Gas in Primary energy Mix
To view Details of State wise GAs of BPCL and BGRL, click here