BP to bring cooking stoves to market

Petro giant British Petroleum (BP) is entering the Indian rural market with a dual-fuel chullah (cooking stove). It will run on both LPG and...

Petro giant British Petroleum (BP) is entering the Indian rural market with a dual-fuel chullah (cooking stove). It will run on both LPG and biomass in two different burners, offering flexibility to the consumers.

This hybrid application has been designed by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and is now in the protototype testing stage. Apart from using zero-emission LPG, it aims to increase the efficiency of biomass burning by a factor of five.

The company is hoping to bring it to the markets in 4the next six months.

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Already present in India with their lubricant Castrol, this is their foray into a different segment of the market. Their target is 20 million chullahs by 2020.

‘‘We wanted to serve an under-served market,’’ said Tony Meggs, Group Vice President (Technology), BP who has made his first visit to India for the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by Teri. The company is try out innovating marketing strategies with local women as distributors. ‘‘We hope to make profits because of the volumes of a product like this,’’ explained Megg.

According to him, companies shy away from entering these markets not because of quantity of investments but because of the time and energy it takes to make something like this work. They have spent 15 months with 12 employees trying to get this off the ground. He does not deny that they are looking at opportunities to expand into the Indian market in oil exploration, retailing and refineries.

As far as the availability of LPG is concerned, the company is expecting to supply LPG directly to consumers. They have already applied for a permit with the government. ‘‘We do not want a subsidy from the government except the permit that will help consumers gain access to LPG more easily,’’ added Meggs.

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