Bharat Petroleum

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
	File:Bpcl logo.jpg
Company type	PSU (Trading on BSE)
Industry	Petroleum
Founded	1976 (After nationalisation of Burmah Shell Company)
Headquarters	Mumbai, India
Key people	Ashok Sinha, Chairman & MD
Products	Oil , LPG
Revenue	US$27.71 Billion (2008)
Total assets	US$11.86 Billion (2008)
Number of employees	14,729 (2007)
Website	BharatPetroleum.com

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is one of India's largest PSU companies, with Global Fortune 500 rank of 287 (2008). Its corporate office is located at Ballard Estate, Mumbai. As the name suggests, its interests are in petroleum sector. It is involved in the refining and retailing of petroleum products.

Bharat Petroleum is considered to be a pioneer in Indian petroleum industry with various path-breaking initiatives such as Pure for Sure campaign, Petro card, Fleet card etc.

BPCL's growth post-nationalisation (in 1976) has been phenomenal. One of the single digit Indian representatives in the Fortune 500 & Forbes 2000 listings, BPCL is often referred to as an “MNC in PSU garb”. It is considered a pioneer in marketing initiatives, and employs “Best in Class” practices.

History

The 1860s saw vast industrial development. A lot of petroleum refineries came up. An important player in the South Asian market then was the Burmah Oil Company Ltd. Though incorporated in Scotland in 1886, the company grew out of the enterprises of the Rangoon Oil Company, which had been formed in 1871 to refine crude oil produced from primitive hand dug wells in Upper Burma.

The search for oil in India began in 1886, when Mr. Goodenough of McKillop Stewart Company[1] drilled a well near Jaypore in upper Assam and struck oil. In 1889, the Assam Railway and Trading Company (ARTC)[2] struck oil at Digboi marking the beginning of oil production in India.

While discoveries were made and industries expanded, John D Rockefeller together with his business associates acquired control of numerous refineries and pipelines to later form the giant Standard Oil Trust. The largest rivals of Standard Oil - Royal Dutch, Shell, Rothschilds - came together to form a single organisation: Asiatic Petroleum Company to market petroleum products in South Asia.

In 1928, Asiatic Petroleum (India) joined hands with Burmah Oil Company - an active producer, refiner and distributor of petroleum products, particularly in Indian and Burmese markets. This alliance led to the formation of Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company of India Limited. A pioneer in more ways than one, Burmah Shell began its operations with import and marketing of Kerosene. This was imported in bulk and transported in 4 gallon and 1 gallon tins through rail, road and country craft all over India. With motor cars, came canned Petrol, followed by service stations. In the 1930s, retail sales points were built with driveways set back from the road; service stations began to appear and became accepted as a part of road development. After the war Burmah Shell established efficient and up-to-date service and filling stations to give the customers the highest possible standard of service facilities.

From Burmah Shell to Bharat Petroleum

On 24 January 1976, the Burmah Shell Group of Companies was taken over by the Government of India to form Bharat Refineries Limited. On 1 August 1977, it was renamed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. It was also the first refinery to process newly found indigenous crude Bombay High, in the country.th

Products

Bharat Petroleum produces a diverse range of products, from petrochemicals and solvents to aircraft fuel and speciality lubricants and markets them through its wide network of Petrol Stations, Kerosene Dealers, LPG Distributors, Lube Shoppes, besides supplying fuel directly to hundreds of industries, and several international and domestic airlines.

Refineries

BPCL has Refineries at Mumbai and Kochi(Kochi Refineries) with a capacity of 12 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) and 7.5 MMTPA respectively for refining crude oil. BPCL's subsidiary at Numaligarh has a capacity of 3 MMT.

Brand ambassador

Mahendra Singh Dhoni signed on as the Brand Ambassador for BPCL in 2006. Narain Karthikeyan is one other Brand Ambassador for BPCL.

International rankings

BPCL is a Fortune Global 500 company as per the ranking of 2008. It was ranked at position 287. It was ranked at position 325 as per the ranking of 2007.
BPCL was featured on the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2008 at position 967

External links