BP India board meeting: Reflects confidence in opportunity: Rediff Moneynews

New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) The board of global energy giant BP plc is meeting in India to express its commitment and belief in the opportunities the country offers, the company said on Wednesday.

“The five-day visit by BP management reflects BP’s significant and growing presence in India and the company’s commitment to further develop its business in and with the country,” the statement said.

Recognising India’s critical role in global energy demand, during its visit the Board will also meet with the Indian government and BP’s business partners, and visit key BP locations in India.

However, the statement did not provide any details about the meetings or the location of the board meetings.

Meeting with Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri, bp Chairman Helge Lund commented: “bp is committed to working closely with the Indian government to support evolving energy needs. By leveraging our combined experience and expertise with our partners, we aim to facilitate safe, affordable and less carbon-intensive growth of India’s energy resources to meet growing demand.”

BP Chief Executive Murray Auchincloss added: “There is enormous potential for BP to work even more closely with India. We see growing business opportunities, including through our world-class partnership with Reliance (Industries Ltd), domestic gas production and the expansion of our joint retail presence. In turn, India’s highly skilled engineering and scientific talent can help us deliver our goals more effectively, efficiently and faster.”

Kartikeya Dube, BP’s country head, said: “India is an important part of BP’s strategy as we transform into an integrated energy company. Building on our century-long heritage in India through our Castrol brand, our presence across the gas value chain, our retail mobility businesses and our global business and technology hub, we expect to grow significant business here and help support India’s journey towards energy independence by 2047.”

BP is one of India’s largest international energy companies, with a century of experience and investing over $12 billion across the country’s energy value chain.

The partnership with Reliance has led to the launch of three new deep-water natural gas projects, accounting for a third of India’s gas production. BP and Reliance have joined forces to create Jio-BP, a major retail, aviation fuel and mobility partnership that now includes close to 1,900 retail outlets across the country and over 4,900 charging points.

BP’s operations in India also include Castrol lubricants, oil and gas trading and clean energy projects.