Union Government grants BP Plc licence to set up petrol pumps in India

The Union Government in the second week of October 2016 has formally granted a licence to BP Plc to set up 3500 petrol pumps in India.

The company was granted a formal licence on 14 October 2016. It was granted licence to market Motor Spirit (petrol) and High Speed Diesel (diesel). With this, BP became the 10th company to enter the fuel retailing sector.

About BP

• BP plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England.

• It was formerly known as British Petroleum.

• It is one of the world's seven oil and gas supermajors, whose performance in 2012 made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's fifth-largest revenue (turnover).

• It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry.

• As of 31 December 2015, it had operations in more than 70 countries, produced around 3.3 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, and had total proved reserves of 17.18 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

• Its largest division is BP America in the United States.

• On the other hand, the company has been directly involved in several major environmental and safety incidents. Among them were the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion, the wreck of Torrey Canyon, the 2006 Prudhoe Bay oil spill and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

• The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history. It resulted in severe environmental, health and economic consequences, and serious legal and public relations repercussions for BP.

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