To cater to Industries needs of fuels and other petrochemicals ( used as raw materials for Industries), Bharat Petroleums Industrial and Commercial Business Unit, commonly known as I&C SBU was formed. Currently I&C SBU caters to approx. 8000 industrial customers spread across all over the country. These include industries from the Public & Private sectors, of the core and non core segments and various Govt. establishments such as Defense, Railways, State Transport Undertakings, State Electricity Boards etc. All major industrial customers, so as to say, the whos who of the industrial world such as Reliance Industries, TATA, Birla Group of industries, TELCO, BALCO,NALCO, ITC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, NTPC, Sterlite Industries, Fertilizer plants such as Sriram Fertilizers, FACT, KRIBHCO, NFL, Deepak Fertilizers & Petrochemicals etc. feature in our list of esteemed customers. Major products handled includes fuels (MS, HSD, LSHS, NAPHTHA, FURNACE OIL), solvents ( MTO, SBP, HEXANE) speciality products such as BENZENE, TOLUENE,CRMB ( Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen) , PMB (Polymer Modified Bitumen) etc. Majority of industrial products are sold to customers from Bharat Petroleums 3 refineries set in Mumbai, Cochin and Numaligarh. However, customers desirous of uplifting products from near to their industries can avail the services from Bharat Petroleums supply locations- strategically spread across the country. Though normally product is sold ex- supply locations, on a specific request from its customers, Bharat Petroleum also delivers the product at their doorstep. To some of its large customers situated in the vicinity of the Refineries, product is delivered through pipelines. Customers such as TATA Power-Trombay, RIL- Patalganga, FACT- Cochin etc. receive product through pipe line.

BPCL is an equity partner in Petronet LNG LTD. (PLL) and are entitled for a 10% share of Long Term Gas from PLLs Dahej Terminal. In case of SPOT GAS, BPCL has a share of 1/3rd . At present BPCL is meeting the RLNG requirement of 14 major customers. During 2007-08, BPCL sold a volume of 0.905 MMT of RLNG from its Dahej Terminal.

I&C SBU of BPCL ended the year 2007-08 with a record volume of 7.047 MMT and achieved a turn over of Rs.18,976 crores.

The E- commerce initiative

BPCL has leveraged Information Technology as an enabler to establish a leadership position in the Oil Industry. Integrating all its business operations with an ERP from SAP was the first step, and subsequently capping with a B2B site.

Enhanced customer satisfaction being BPCL’ s motto, it became the first oil company to embark on a voyage from Brick to Click ( Business to Business e- commerce). This B2B portal enables the customer to place an order online, track the status of his order, view dispatch information, which results in better inventory management, better financial information and more convenience for them.

The portal is also integrated with the ERP system, which now reduces the response time, and helps to capture data from Kochi and Numaligarh refineries. The portal also enables customers to view their statement of accounts, thus enabling sharing complete information with the customers.

I&C SBU also activated the SMS alerts through which the customer gets information about dispatch of loads made to them. This value added service not only enables them make arrangements for unloading of the products without time delay but also saves the botheration of having to hunt for information about the status of their order.

e- banking

To facilitate easy and convenient way of making payment, Bharat Petroleum has tied up with ICICI, HDFC and SBI through which Industrial customers could make payment for their supplies on net. However, this facility was available only to those customers holding account with one of these banks. In order to overcome this limitation, BPCL tied up with BNP Paribas Bank which offered the validation of RTGS process that facilitates payment by RTGS/NEFT by a customer holding account with any bank/branch with core banking facilities.

Since introduction of this facility, customers are enrolling in large numbers. The e- banking turn over has crossed Rs.3000 crores during 2007-08 and I&C has ambitious plans to double the e- banking turn over in 2008-09 and 100% customer enrolment for payment by RTGS/NEFT.