A Study of Major

Environmental Issues and

Initiatives
at Bharat Petroleum
Corporation Limited

Arun Kumar
Raveesh
Roll No :B08073
Environmental / Social Concerns for
the Company
• Petroleum refining - A major polluting
industry
• Environmental issues outweigh the
social issues
• Major Environmental Concerns
– Air pollution and climate change
– Water conservation
– Waste management and Water Pollution
 Legal / Social Drivers

• Large number of laws and regulations in place to monitor and

control the pollution and environmental degradation.
– The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution ) Act and Rules 1974 ,
– The Water(Prevention and Control of Pollution ) Act and Rules
1978,
– The Environment (Protection ) Act and Rules 1986 amended 2005
and
– The Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules,1989
amended 2003.

• Increasing Social awareness about pollution and climate

change. Customers are increasingly patronizing green
companies. Also companies and governments are becoming
increasingly aware of the need for sustainable development
 Threats and Opportunities

• Threats
– Environmental regulations becoming increasingly
stringent eg : Euro IV
– Threat from alternative fuels like natural gas
– Depletion of oil reserves throughout the world
• Opportunities
– New Business Opportunities like CNG
– Get head start ahead of competition by investing in
newer technologies like low sulphur petrol
– Opportunities in trading of Carbon credits arising out
of CDM projects
– Create a better brand value by being a “green
company”
 Current Initiatives

• One of its vision statements is to be the “most environment

friendly company”
• BPCL has adopted the triple bottom line (TBL) reporting

• Air Pollution and Climate Change

– Emission Control & Monitoring System to ensure that the emissions

of SOx and NOx are well below the allowable limits.
– BPCL has started exploring low-carbon options in alternate fuels .
BPCL has emerged as the leader in alternate fuels segment,
recording strong growth of 23.3% in the sale of CNG .
– BPCL has also ventured into the biodiesel value chain. Jatropha
plantations in 1000 acres .
– BPCL has forayed into ethanol blended petrol which has far less
environmental implications when compared to conventional petrol .
– Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects that come under the
Kyoto Protocol
 Current Initiatives
• Water Consumption and Conservation
– Integrated rainwater harvesting system at the Kochi refinery to
collect, conserve and protect rainwater for effective utilization.
– BPCL has launched project Boond which is a rain water harvesting
project
– BPCL has also been striving hard to improve its water use
efficiency .Towards this end , it has been making efforts for 100 %
recycling of the process water.
– Zero discharge in Numaligarh since October 2006. Efforts are on to
achieve the same in other refineries as well.

• Waste Management
– Bio-remediation of sludge before disposal using Oil Zapper organic
bacteria from TERI.
– Process water from the refineries is treated in the effluent treatment
plant (ETP). Further, since these effluents may have traces of oil
present in them, the treated effluent from the ETP is run through the
oil water separator in three cycles so as to ensure that the discharge
does not contain any process material.
 Comparison with other
players in the industry
• Pioneer in the petroleum industry in terms of
environmental initiatives .
• Won many awards for its environmental initiatives.
– The GreenTech Environment Excellence Gold Award in
Petroleum Refinery Sector for outstanding achievement in
Environment Management for 2006.
– Ranked first in a study conducted by TNS Automotive in
2006, among automobile and related companies for
Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility.
Hindustan Petroleum was ranked Fourth while Indian Oil
Corporation came seventh among all the companies
mentioned in the list.
• First company in the petroleum industry to adopt TBL
reporting
• First company in the refining industry to venture into
alternative low carbon fuels.
 Framework for
Environmental
•
Management in BPCL
Define the company’s environmental objectives and internalize it as part of
the corporate objectives.
• Establish an effective environmental management system and clearly define
the organization, responsibilities, policies, resources and standards.
• Identify the major environmental hazards and assess the risks.
• Once the risks and impacts have been identified, develop plans to overcome
the same.
• Based on the plans, identify specific projects that could be carried out for
implementing the plans .Start with pilot projects in certain locations.
• The actual implementation of the projects comes next. While the project is
getting implemented, it is important to monitor the project to ensure that the
project gets implemented as planned.
• The final phase would be the evaluation and review of the project to evaluate
whether the project is meeting its stated objectives. Ideally the reviews have
to be done even while the project is getting implemented.
• If the pilot project meets its stated objectives, the company can roll out the
project in other locations too.