Mumbai: State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) has said it has lined up Rs 40,000-45,000 crore capital expenditure plan for the next four-five years, which will be utilised in its upstream projects as well the downstream expansion. “In the next four to five years our total capex will be to the tune of around Rs 40,000-45,000 crore. This allocation will be spent on upstream, refinery expansion and other infrastructure development,” BPCL chairman and managing director R.K. Singh told reporters on Friday after the company’s annual general meeting held here.
When asked about the fund-raising plan for this capex, Singh said raising funds to this magnitude would not be a problem as BPCL is already in talks with domestic banks. “We have no problem in mobilising this kind of resources because we have some good discoveries. Many banks are willing to fund our activities,” he said. For funding its many exploration projects, BPCL finance director S. Varadarajan said a consortium of domestic banks led by State Bank of India, is ready to lend. But he added that these will be dollar-dominated borrowings. The company has many gas blocks in Mozambique, 10 oil blocks in Brazil, and some oil and gas blocks in Indonesia, Australia, Britain, East Timor, and a shale gas project. To a question on Cove Energy’s stake in resource-rich prospective gas block in Mozambique, which it plans to offload, Singh said the BPCL is interested in purchasing Cove’s holdings but for high valuation. “Cove Energy holds 5.8% stake in the consortium, which is valued at $1.9 billion. Our stake is 10% in the project. We want to buy but we are not in a position because we don’t have so much resources,” Singh said.
