Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian public sector oil and gas company, headquartered in Mumbai.

It is India's second-largest government-owned downstream oil producer, whose operations are overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

In 1889 during vast industrial development, an important player in the South Asian market was the Burmah Oil Company.

Asiatic Petroleum was a joint venture of Royal Dutch, Shell and Rothschilds formed to address the monopoly of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, which also operated in India as Esso.

[9] As counsel for the CPIL, Rajinder Sachar and Prashant Bhushan said that the only way to disinvest in the companies would be to repeal or amend the Acts by which they were nationalized in the 1970s.

[12] In 2017, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) received Maharatna status, putting it in the category of government-owned entities in India with the largest market capitalization and consistently high profits.

[13] In 2021, BPCL announced plans to invest US$4.05 billion in order to improve petrochemical capacity and refining efficiencies, over the next five years.

As of 2018[update], BPCL was also setting up a Second-generation biofuels refinery at Baulsingha village in Bargarh district, Odisha of 100 kilo litre per day (KLPD) capacity.

[18] In 2024, Bharat Petroleum continued to strengthen its ties with Russia, despite international sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Indian refiners, including BPCL, capitalized on discounted Russian oil, which became more appealing after Western countries halted purchases.

[31] In addition to this, it has also been reported that rising oil prices, along with increasing development and use of green energy, is leading to delays in the privatisation process.