BPCL to Float Tender for Bhatinda Terminal Automation by May 2013

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BSE:500547) (BPCL) (Mumbai, India), India's state-owned oil marketing company, is set to float tenders for the selection of an automation contractor for its Bhatinda refined products terminal. According to BPCL sources, the preparation of the bid documents is under way, and the company expects to release the documents by May 2013.

BPCL is upgrading the fire water storage system of the 318,750-barrel-capacity Bhatinda terminal. The project involves setting up of three fire water storage tanks with a total capacity of 8,102 kilolitres. The company already has floated the tenders for all major packages and expects to award the contracts by the end of April 2013. The second part of the expansion envisages automation of the terminal, which involves implementation of an automated tank gauging system, manifold automation, and automation of gantry operations. The automation project is slated to kick off in August 2013, and it is expected to be completed by March 2014.

India's leading oil marketing companies, such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (BSE:530965) (IOCL) (Delhi, India) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (BSE:500104) (HPCL) (Mumbai, India), are in the of process of converting all their old petroleum oil lubricants (POL) terminals to automated terminals, in order to increase the efficiency of the operations and avoid manual errors.

Bharat Corporation Petroleum Limited is one of the largest oil-marketing companies in India. The company owns four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerela), Numaligarh (Assam) and Bina (Madhya Pradesh) in India. The company currently process about 12 million metric tons of crude oil per annum. For expanding its exploration activities, BPCL has promoted Bharat Petro Resource Limited as a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Bharat Petro Resource has operations in India, Brazil, Australia, Mozambique and Indonesia. BPCL has 49 LPG bottling plants, 12 installation terminals and 115 refined products terminal across India.

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