The Hindu Business Line : BPCL, HPCL eye options for synergy

MR M.S. SRINIVASAN, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, flanked by Mr M.B. Lal (left), Chairman and Managing Director, HPCL, and Mr K.K. Acharya, Managing Director, CPCL, at a seminar on `Recent developments in FCC & Hydroprocessing' organised by the Centre for High Technology and CPCL in Chennai on Monday. - Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai March 26 BPCL and HPCL are looking at options to synergise their operations so that both companies benefit, according to HPCL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr M.B. Lal.

Speaking at a seminar organised by CPCL on `Recent developments in FCC and hydroprocessing,' Mr Lal said that BPCL and HPCL have their Mumbai refineries practically opposite to each other and that it makes sense to "exchange streams."

In other words, the two refineries would exchange products so that the output of one refinery could be further processed at the other.

The seminar was a designed to be a forum for the exposition of latest developments relating to process equipment, catalysts and benchmarking and to discuss new developments in hydrogen management and the challenges of Euro-III and Euro-IV.

Petrochem projects

Speaking at the seminar, Mr M.S. Srinivasan, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, called upon oil refiners to put up petrochemical projects. Petrochemicals have better margins than petrol and diesel, he said.

Mr Srinivasan also called for closer interaction between industry and academia.

He said that such interaction was missing in India and that young minds need to be encouraged to come up with new ideas.