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Chennai , Sept. 9

A TWO per cent fall in sales of diesel in the first five months of the current year, compared to the same period last year, is "worrying" BPCL. Diesel contributes to about 40 per cent of the company's sales and bottomline.

At a press conference here, BPCL's Director - Marketing, Mr S. Radhakrishnan, could not recall the numbers, but said that diesel sales were down for all oil companies.

He said that this decline could possibly be attributed to the kerosene that is sold — legally — through parallel marketing channels. He said that truck drivers probably saw economic benefits from mixing kerosene with diesel. But the sales of other petroleum products, viz., petrol, LPG, naphtha and lubes, were on the rise, he said. Mr Radhakrishnan said that BPCL proposed to expand the capacity of its Mumbai refinery from 9 mt to 10.5 mt. The project would be completed by October 2004, he said.

Only one obstacle remained to be removed for the Bina refinery to get started. (A case has been filed against the clearance given by the forest department of Gujarat for the passage of the crude pipeline through some areas.)

However, market dynamics has forced BPCL to reconfigure the suite of products that the refinery would produce. Production of lube base stocks would happen only at BPCL's Mumbai refinery. But what products would be produced at Bina, is yet to be decided.

Mr Radhakrishnan said that the 360-km Manmad-Indore product pipeline would be commissioned next week. BPCL is also examining the feasibility of putting up another product pipeline between Numaligarh and Siliguri in Assam.

Mr Radhakrishnan said `auto LPG' was not taking off, because of the lack of check against vehicle owners using subsidised LPG as automobile fuel. He said that recently, the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum had written to all the States' Chief Secretaries, impressing upon them the need for strict policing of such a diversion of subsidised LPG.

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