Bharat Petroleum Corp Share Price

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is a Maharatna public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. BPCL, with a market capitalisation of ₹97,399 crore, owns around 21,000 fuel station networks across India today.

Bharat Petroleum traces its journey to the early 1900s. What began as an oil and gas company has transformed into a Fortune 500 conglomerate.

It all began when Shell Transport, Royal Dutch and Paris Rothschilds joined forces to establish the Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) in the early 1900s to market petroleum products in South Asia. In 1928, Asiatic Petroleum (India) collaborated with the Burmah Oil Company, a producer, refiner and distributor of petroleum products, particularly in Indian and Burmese markets, to form the Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company of India Limited.

Initially, Burmah Shell focused on importing and marketing kerosene. In the mid-1950s, Burmah Shell introduced LPG as a cooking fuel to Indian homes. In 1951, Burmah Shell embarked on building a refinery in Mahul, Maharashtra, under an agreement with the government. On January 24, 1976, the Government of India took over Burmah Shell, leading to the formation of Bharat Refineries Limited, later renamed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Business operations

BPCL has refineries in Mumbai, Kochi and Bina, and an under-construction facility in Odisha.

The Mumbai refinery is a compact lube refinery located in the heart of the city. It can process 12 million tons of crude, with lowest SOx emission and lowest specific energy and water consumption in industry.

Massive expansion and upgradation of the Kochi refinery has catapulted its capacity to 15.5 MMTPA, making it the largest public sector refinery in the country.

The Mumbai and Kochi refineries together achieved best ever capacity utilisation of over 100% consistently. These refineries processed 96 different types of crudes from all six continents in the world.

The Bina refinery, located in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, has a capacity of 7.8 million metric tonnes per year. This refinery started as Bharat Oman Refinery Limited (BORL) and meets the demand of markets in north India. BPCL is also setting up a second-generation biofuel refinery in Odisha’s Bargarh district. The plant would be using rice straw to produce ethanol for mixing in petrol. Once functional, the plant will produce 100 kilolitres per day of 1G ethanol (ethanol from rice grain) and a similar volume of 2G ethanol (ethanol from rice straw).

BPCL marked its entry into the electric vehicle charging sector with the launch of its first station in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in 2018. To expand its EV charging infrastructure, in December 2023, the company signed an MoU with a Tata Motors subsidiary to install 7,000 EV charging points across India by 2024.

BPCL has also initiated the development of over 90 EV fast-charging highway corridors. This initiative will ensure the availability of fast-charging stations at about every 100 kilometres on both sides of highways. BPCL’s share price has surged nearly 14% in the last three years.

Financial Highlights

Consolidated revenue of ₹5,33,547 crore in FY23 as against ₹4,32,570 crore in FY22. Profit after tax of the company dropped to ₹2,892 crore in FY23 as against ₹12084 crore in the preceding fiscal. Total sales of the company increased to 48.92 MT in FY23 as against 42.51MT in FY22. The company’s earnings per share (EPS) dropped to 10.01 in FY23, compared to 54.91 in FY22.