Hindustan Petroleum


Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian oil and natural gas company with its headquarters at Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has about 25% market-share in India among public-sector companies and a strong marketing infrastructure. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, also second promoter of the company, owns 51.11% shares in HPCL and others are distributed amongst financial institutes, public and other investors. The company is ranked 367th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2016. HPCL was removed from NIFTY 50 INDEX in March 2019 Recently on 24 October 2019 the company has conferred with Maharatna status.

History

HPCL was incorporated in 1974 after the takeover and merger of erstwhile Esso Standard and Lube India Limited by the . Caltex Oil Refining Ltd. was taken over by the Government of India in 1976 and merged with HPCL in 1978 by the . Kosan Gas Company was merged with HPCL in 1979 by the .
In 2003, following a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, the Supreme Court of India restrained the Central government from privatising Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum without the approval of Parliament. As counsel for the CPIL, Rajinder Sachar and Prashant Bhushan said that the only way to disinvest in the companies would be to repeal or amend the Acts by which they were nationalised in the 1970s. As a result, the government would need a majority in both houses to push through any privatisation.
HPCL has been steadily growing over the years. The refining capacity increased from 5.5 million metric tonnes in 1984/85 to 14.80 million metric tonnes as of March 2013. On the financial front, the net income from sales/operations grew from 2687 crores in 1984–1985 to 2,06,529 crores in financial year 2012–2013. During FY 2013-14, its net profit was 1740 crores.

Merger and Acquisition

On 19 July 2017, the Government of India announced the acquisition of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
On 1 November 2017, the Union Cabinet approved ONGC for acquiring majority 51.11% stake in HPCL. On 30 January 2018, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation acquired the entire 51.11% stake of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, thus becoming the promoter of the company. Although ONGC Holds 51.1% in the Company, HPCL denies to identify it as promoter. The reason given for it is that the majority of Board Of Directors are from Government of India and not ONGC.

Operations

HPCL operates two major refineries producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels and specialties, one in Mumbai of 7.5 million tonnes per year capacity and the other in Visakhapatnam, with a capacity of 8.3 million tonnes per year. HPCL holds an equity stake of 16.95% in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, a state-of-the-art refinery at Mangalore with a capacity of 9 million tonnes per year. Another refinery of 9 million tonnes per year. HPCL has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Rajasthan for setting up a refinery near Barmer. It would be operated under a joint venture company called HPCL-Rajasthan Refinery Limited.
HPCL also owns and operates the largest lubricant refinery in India producing lube base oils of international standards, with a capacity of 335 TMT. This refinery accounts for over 40% of India's total lube base oil production. Presently HPCL produces over 300+ grades of lubes, specialities and greases.
The marketing network of HPCL consists of 21 zonal offices in major cities and 128 regional offices facilitated by a supply and distribution infrastructure comprising terminals, aviation service facilities, liquefied petroleum gas bottling plants, lube filling plants, inland relay depots, retail outlets and LPG and lube distributorships.
HPCL has state-of-the-art information technology infrastructure to support its core business. The data center is at Hitech city in Hyderabad.

Products

HPCL has a number of refineries in India. Some are listed below:

Prize Petroleum Company Limited

Prize Petroleum Company Limited is the wholly owned subsidiary of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. Prize is focused on the appraisal and development of hydrocarbon accumulations in the onshore and offshore projects by conducting exploration, development and production of petroleum and other activities in accordance with its mission. Prize's operating projects are the Hirapur Marginal oil fields of Cambay basin near Gandhinagar under a service contract with ONGC; and the pre-NELP production sharing contract for the Sanganpur field with M/s Hydrocarbon Development Company Ltd as Operator. Recently, Prize signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire non-operated minority stake in two gas assets in offshore south Australia.