Bharat Petroleum Corporation has INR 400 crore dues locked with Air India but is not pressing the panic button yet. The refiner no longer supplies fuel to Kingfisher Airlines (whose dues have been settled) though cash and carry continues in some locations.

Mr RK Singh CMD at a press conference said that “Air India is a matter of concern but it is not a hopeless situation. We do hope some action is taken though there is no clear picture so far.”

AI has a 60 day credit with BPCL and observers said that the ball is clearly in the Centre's court to draft a turnaround script for the beleaguered airline. Till then, the going will be tough for the oil companies, already reeling from losses incurred on diesel, cooking gas and kerosene.

Global prices of petrol have surpassed (those of) diesel in the recent past which is an unusual phenomenon. The depreciation of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar has been a double whammy for oil refiners since crude imports have become a lot costlier.

According to Mr Singh, marketing remains the core strength for BPCL where an initiative, Project Cube (customer understanding for business excellence) has kicked off. Accenture has been roped in as consultant for this exercise which is expected to wrap up in two years. Mr Singh said that “The ultimate goal is to develop a customer-related data framework and analytics to generate insights and integrate them with business operations. The focus of the program is to harness the power of one BPCL.”

(Sourced from BL)