Fuel mix: The Metamorphosis of Oil Marketers

Oil marketing companies are gearing up for a transition to non-fossil fuels by transforming into green energy companies selling biofuels and high-value chemicals.

- P.B. Jayakumar

IMAGINE DRIVING TO THE nearest ‘petrol pump’, but not to tank up your vehicle. There are no takers for petrol or diesel since vehicles now run on electricity and other non-fossil fuels. So, instead, the ‘pump’ offers facilities such as rest rooms, dining, charging stations, restaurants, toy shops and convenience product stores. Companies, including Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, the country’s biggest private refiner and an early mover in most such cases, has already spotted the opportunity and is transforming itself. For RIL, data is the new oil.

But what about state-owned oil refining and marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corp. [IOC], Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. [BPCL] and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. [HPCL], set up to source and refine crude to meet India’s growing energy demands?

Legacy of the Past

From 1947 to June 2010, the Central government controlled and subsidised petroleum prices to protect consumers (diesel was de-regulated only in 2014). The OMCs were at the receiving end most of the time, their balance sheets in red each time international crude prices shot up. Expansion and modernisation depended on the government, and most of the refineries were operating at gross refining margins (GRM) of less than $4 per barrel. GRM — the amount a company earns from turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel — is the global benchmark for efficiency and profitability of a refiner. IOC was started in 1959, BPCL in 1952 and HPCL was incorporated in 1974. Some of their refineries (23 put together) are more than a century old.