"Let us first do what we are doing effectively," said chairman and managing director, U Sundararajan at a press meet here on Monday soon after the company's annual general meeting. While both Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Indian Oil (IOC) have already indicated their interest in exploration and production, BPCL has continued to maintain that it will focus on its strengths - refining and marketing.

Sundararajan said a diversification into petrochemicals makes a lot of sense given that there was excess naphtha produced in refining which could be put to good commercial use.

On the ongoing projects, Sundararajan said the Rs 5,277 crore six mmtpa Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh is being set up by thejoint venture company -- Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd. The project envisages crude oil import facilities consisting of a single point mooring and a crude oil terminal at Vadinar near Jamnagar in Gujarat, and a 943 km-long cross country crude pipeline from Vadinar to Bina. The project, which has faced rough weather for getting environmental clearances, has now been placed on the fast track.

``Another three mmtpa refinery is being set up at Numaligarh in Assam, in a joint venture with the IBP Company Ltd and Government of Assam,'' he said. Numaligarh project cost, estimated at Rs 2,489 crore, has a foreign exchange component of Rs 400 crore. More than 94 per cent of the project is complete and is scheduled to be commissioned by December 1998, he said.

Sundararajan said the joint venture company with Shell is setting up a seven mmtpa refinery in Uttar Pradesh at a cost of Rs 7,070 crore. This includes a foreign exchange component of Rs 2,020 crore.

In order to increase market share in the aviation fuelsector, BPCL plans to construct three more stations at Bhubaneswar, Cochin and Jaipur. It already has 15 aviation fuelling stations. BPCL sales to airlines account for 2.9 per cent of its total sales while its share in the total aviation fuel turbine market is around 22.51 per cent.

Sundararajan said to face the unprecedented challenges in the post-deregulation era, the company has embarked upon an organisational restructuring exercise last year. The new structure has set up strategic business units (SBUs) which will focus on specific customer segments.

BPCL is also continuing its efforts to upgrade and modernise its retail network by commissioning 13 more retail outlets conforming to international standards. The retail business constitutes 63.2 per cent of the total sales. It has also entered into fuel supply agreements with 22 independent power plants and four captive power plants for the supply of 1.1 mmtpa of naphtha and 0.8 mmtpa of furnace oil.