State-run oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) will have to invest over ₹3,000 crore over the next year to upgrade its existing refining capacity to meet better fuel standards.

Speaking to BusinessLine , R Ramachandran, Director (Refineries), BPCL, said that the company plans to add a ₹600-crore gasoline treatment facility at the Mumbai refinery in order to produce fuel that complies with Bharat Stage (BS) VI norms.

A similar facility, with a capital outlay of ₹3,000 crore, will be set up at the Kochi refinery as well.

The funding for these two facilities are expected to come from internal accruals and debt.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has set April 2020 as the target for implementation of BS VI fuel requirements, advancing the deadline by four years and skipping the BS V stage altogether.

Currently, BS IV-compliant fuel is being supplied in 15 major cities, while the rest of the country is still using BS III-compliant fuel.

The Bharat Stage standards, which closely mimic the Euro fuel emission standards, are environmental norms that regulate vehicular emissions, controlling the levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that can be released when petrol or diesel is burnt.

By the end of this fiscal, BPCL expects to commission its expanded refining capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) at the Kochi refinery, from the current 9.5 mtpa.

However, the company might makes plans to further expand capacity at this location, going up to 22 mtpa in the future, company officials said.

This would make Kochi the largest refinery for BPCL, far ahead of its flagship refinery at Mumbai, which has a capacity of 12 mtpa.

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