Indian oil and gas company moves into biogas
Major Indian oil and gas company Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is venturing into the biogas sector, the Times of India reports.
According to the Times of India, BPCL has begun its biogas involvement on ‘a microscale’, setting up a captive use plant for a food outlet in one of its petrol pumps at Bazargon off the Nagpur-Amravati highway.
At the opening of the new biogas pump, BPCL executive director Arun Singh revealed there are plans to open 100 similar captive use plants throughout India ‘in over one year’s time’.
Singh told the Times of India that an entire logistics supply chain would need to be developed before the scale-up of biogas in India could take place.
“The biggest challenge, is ensuring availability of biowaste at a large scale. This will require the involvement of civic bodies, NGOs and other government agencies to collect biowaste which can be converted into gas,” Singh said.
“The company has already done its calculations and the business can be financially viable with around 12% return on investment”.
BPCL is a Government of India controlled company headquartered in Mumbai. It operates two major refineries, in Mumbai and Kochi, and was ranked 358th on the Fortune list of the world’s biggest corporations in 2016.
