State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) will invest Rs 12,000 crore in capital expenditure during FY21. The company has not revised its capex downward despite the COVID-19 impact.
For new projects, the company will be prioritising them out. The company’s major Vizag and Mumbai refinery expansions are in advanced stage and will be commissioned in FY21.
Of the Rs 12,000 crore, HPCL will spend Rs 7,000 crore in refinery and Rs 5,000 crore in marketing.
The company posted 56 percent drop in its net profit at Rs 2,637 crore for FY20 against Rs 6,029 crore in FY19. The decrease in net profit is mainly on account of inventory losses due to sharp fall in crude prices and exchange rate fluctuations.
The company’s profit declined 99 percent at Rs 27 crore in Q4/FY20, as against Rs 2,970 crore recorded during Q4/FY19. The gross sales came at Rs 2,86,250crore for FY20 as compared to Rs 2,95,713 crore for FY19.
On the fuel retail front, the company will be setting up 500 fuel retail outlets during FY21. HPCL had commissioned 1,194 new retail outlets and 245 new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distributorships in FY20 taking the number of total retail outlets to 16,476 and the number of total LPG distributors to 6,110.
The company has also commenced CNG sales at 476 outlets. Also, construction activities at Chhara liquefied natural gasification (LNG) terminal are in progress. It is participating in cross- country natural gas pipelines in joint venture with other companies.
During FY20, HPCL commissioned its Uran Chakan Shikrapur LPG Pipeline Project, Mundra Delhi Pipeline (MDPL) capacity expansion and Palanpur Vadodara Pipeline project, among others.
It also commissioned 120,000 tonne capacity LPG bottling plant at Sugauli in Bihar.
Moreover, LPG bottling capacity augmentation projects were completed and commissioned in Jatni (Odisha), Kondapally (Andhra Pradesh), Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Anantpur (Andhra Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Manglia (Madhya Pradesh) LPG plants, with total capacity addition of 360 TMTPA during FY20.
The company Visakh refinery modernisation project and Mumbai Refinery expansion projects are making headway and construction activities are in progress at nine million tpa greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemical complex project of HPCL Rajasthan Refinery (HRRL) site in Pachpadra in Barmer.
Also, all the project construction sites, which were temporarily closed due to COVID-19 lockdown in March-end 2020, have recommenced activities post-relaxation effective 20 April 2020 with all necessary precautions.