Diesel prices have been brought to market levels

Mumbai: Diesel prices have been brought to market levels following the staggered deregulation that began in September 2012. Under this, OMCs were allowed to raise retail prices by 50 paise per month and also due to falling crude prices, which is hovering around USD 98 a barrel now.

Meanwhile, Varadarajan said BPCL would invest over Rs 12,000 crore over the next four years in the Mozambique and Brazil upstream business. This is nearly double of what the state-run company had spent in exploration and production in the past decade.

The investments will be part of the Rs 45,000-crore capex planned, including expansion of Kochi refinery from 9.5 mt to 15.5 mt at the cost of Rs 16,500 crore, over the next three years. The Mozambique (gas) and Brazil (oil) fields will start production by FY18 and FY19 respectively, Varadarajan said, adding that so far no domestic player has contacted the company for gas or oil, Varadarajan said.

BPCL's exploration subsidiary Bharat PetroResources (BPRL), owns oil and gas assets in Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia and Australia, and owns a 20 per cent stake in the Brazil blocks via an equal joint venture with Videocon Industries; Petrobras SA which holds 60 per cent. In Mozambique, BPCL holds a 10 per cent stake in the gas blocks operated by the US-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Mozambique blocks have around 50-70 trillion cubic feet natural gas, which is nearly 10 times the reserves of RIL's D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin. Out of this BPCL's share is at 5-7 tcf. Varadarajan also said BPCL will be booking 1-3 mn tonnes LNG annually as part of its plans to improve its gas business through its East and West coasts terminals. "We are looking at booking capacities in LNG terminals.

For our international business, we are looking for long term gas and have signed up two million tonnes import gas pact with foreign players," Varadarajan said. He further said the company will be laying the country's first cross-country pipeline that will connect to Bangladesh. Its subsidiary Assam-based Numaligarh Refineries will shortly begin work on laying the 170-km pipeline from Siliguri in Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh. The pipeline will help BPCL penetrate the Bangladeshi market and ensure sustained supply of oil products to Bangladesh.