'BPCL is not for sale', confirms Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri; here's why

"Decision made: India’s energy Maharatna BPCL is not for sale! (sic)," Puri posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on July 5. "BPCL is making almost as much profit in a single year than the price it was supposed to be sold for," he added.

Puri, along with the post, shared a video where he could be heard explaining why the government has decided not to proceed with the planned disinvestment of BPCL.

"When I joined as petroleum minister one of the things that struck me as very odd was that anyone I met, anywhere in the world, wanted to buy BPCL. I said if everybody wants to buy BPCL, then surely we need to look at why they want to sell it," he could be heard as saying in a media interaction.

"And the profit that BPCL has made in the three quarters of the financial year which concluded, was more than the price for which they were selling it. We would have had a first class problem on our hands if we had done it," Puri added.

When was BPCL privatisation plan taken up?

In 2020, the government had invited bids for the sale of its entire stake, amounting to 52.98% in the oil marketing company. The goal was to complete the disinvestment by March 2021.

However, the privatisation plan was deferred. It was expected that the stake sale would fetch the government around ₹45,000 crore in FY22. However, the stake sale was further delayed, with the strong financial performance of BPCL being seen as one of the reasons behind the postponement.

In recent period, reports had indicated that the government may put the BPCL disinvestment proposal off the table, as the company has been logging strong earnings. The speculations turned out to be true, as Puri has confirmed the cancellation of the privatisation plans.

In the first half of FY24, BPCL posted a cumulative net profit of ₹19,000 crore. In the third quarter, its net profit came in at ₹3,397.3 crore, and improved sequentially to ₹4,789 crore in the fourth quarter.

The revenue from operations in the final quarter of FY24 remained almost flat at ₹1.32 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, the shares of BPCL have grown by around 55% in the last one year, and by approximately 35% in 2024 so far. On Friday, the scrip settled 0.76% lower at ₹305.25.