Mr. B. N. Bankapur has more than 40 years of experience in Oil and Gas industry in India and superannuated on 31st August 2011 from the post of Director (Refineries) of India’s largest commercial enterprise and a Maharatna company, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, with over US$ 72 billion turnover for the year 2010-2011. Also, he was on the Board of Directors of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) and Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and Chairman of Indian Synthetic Rubber Limited, a joint venture between IndianOil, Marubeni and TSRC, Taiwan for Styrene Butadiene Rubber production. He was Director on the Board of Bongaigoan Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd (BRPL) and Indian Oil Tanking (IOTL).

He is one of the few Level A project Director, certified by International Project Management Association (IPMA), USA. Also an assessor for certification.

He has unique experience of working across diverse professional environments and was closely involved in strategic planning and growth of IndianOil through capacity enhancement, value addition and diversification projects.

Holds B. Engg. degree in Chemical Engineering from NIT, Suratkal (Earlier under University of Mysore). He has over 40 years of extensive work experience in the oil & gas sector in various areas including technical services, operations, maintenance, safety & environment in refining and petrochemicals and has handled mega projects from conception to commissioning and their stable operation including performance guarantee test runs. Assumed charge as Director (Refineries) in October 2006,a Board level position in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, the largest National oil company in India and a Fortune Global 500 company(98th in 2011)

Led Indian Oil’s successful foray in the field of Petrochemicals. Achieved commissioning of India’s largest Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant in 2005 in record time during the tenure as Executive Director of Gujarat Refinery. LAB plant achieved 100% capacity utilization in the very first year of its operation.

Spearheaded the execution and commissioning of a world scale Naphtha Cracker plant of 1MMT/year capacity with comprehensive downstream polymer complex consisting of Polypropylene unit (600TMTA), HDPE plant (350TMTA), SWING unit (LLDPE/HDPE of 300TMTA) and MEG (300TMTA) at Panipat, Haryana costing more than 3 Billion US$ to produce a variety of polymers in the continued foray to achieve IOCL’s vision of becoming a partner in the league of Global Petrochemical players. The actual commissioning time of 43 months for Panipat Naphtha Cracker compares well with Global standard for similar capacity plants and is much ahead of average time taken by Indian plants.

Provided the vital leadership for achieving significant growth in IndianOil’s Refinery Operations by way of increase in installed refining capacity from 41.35 MMTPA to 54.2 MMTPA, Crude t’put from 38.5 MMTPA to 52.9 MMTPA, and Distillate Yield improvement from 72.1% to 75.5%. The capacity utilization of refineries crossed 100% for the first time in 2007-08 under his leadership and remained more than 100% during his tenure. Achieved substantial reduction in specific energy consumption from 72 MBN to 62 MBN during this period.

Key person in crude oil evaluation and their sourcing for meeting the needs of all IOC and CPCL refineries. Responsible for widening the basket of crudes and their sources to ensure better margins for the refineries. He was responsible for shipping and chartering operations for the import of crudes and ensured the optimised shipping costs.

Ensured timely supply of BS-III and BS IV (Euro III/IV compliant) MS and HSD to meet the targets set for introduction of these products in the entire country as per the Auto Fuel policy of the Govt. of India.

As a lead person, guided the setting up of Grass root Paradip refinery project of 15 Million tonne per annum capacity at a cost of more than 6 Billion US $, commissioned in 2016.

Led IndianOil to India’s No. 1 Refiner position in the country with raising the group refining capacity to 65.7 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA, .i.e. 1.30 million barrels per day approx.) the largest share among refining companies in India, accounting for 34.8% share of national refining capacity. He has been striving to make India a major Refining hub by taking IndianOil’s group refining capacity beyond 80 MMTPA by 2012 through strategic green field and brown field refinery expansions.

Instrumental in taking up the INDMAX (Resid FCC) of IOC’s own technology for major scaleup & implementation at Paradip Refinery Project. A great effort in commercialization of indigenous technology. Instrumental in bringing the Yield and energy studies, bench marking studies, as well as refinery gross margin improvement studies etc. not only in Indianoil but also in all refineries in the country. Also responsible for implementation of add on packages like RPMS, Production scheduling, Data reconciliation and yield analysis etc. in Indianoil refineries.

Led the team of process Engineers in selection of process licensors for various refinery and petrochemical processes. These included processes like Platformers, Naphtha Hydrotreators FCC, RFCC, Delayed coking units, Diesel Hydrotreators, Various Merox units, SRUs, Hydrocrackers (both once through and total conversion), Hydrogen units, Visbreakers etc. and in petrochemicals plants like Naphtha Cracker, HDPE, Swing Unit for LLDPE and HDPE, MEG, Para-Xylene, PTA, LAB etc. Intensive discussions with all most all process licensors like UOP, Axens, Cheveron, MOBIL, KBR etc.

Implemented simultaneously 12 projects at 8 Refinery locations at an estimated cost of more than 12 Billion US$ and with innovative/out of the box strategies, completed all these projects in time and within the approved cost even when the market was overheated and getting material and contractors was quite challenging.

Led the team to formulate project proposals for Refinery upgradation, value addition ,diversification particularly Petrochemicals, new grass root facilities and new refinery, involving feasibility studies, optimised process configuration, evaluation of options, supply / demand scenario, economic viability, rate of return on investment/equity,etc. and getting the approvals.

Led the Refinery team of more than 14000 people without any industrial disputes and ensured smooth,stable and safe operation of all refineries without any interruptions .Organization structure was reviewed and manpower optimized. For all the new projects/facilities manpower requirements were worked out and provided well in time and also the training programmes were identified and training imparted to ensure smooth commissioning of the plants.The various facilities where manpower was finalised with sound basis and working requirements and got approved by the Board of Directors include LAB plant at IOC’s Gujarat Refinery, PX/PTA Plant at Panipat Refinery, 6MMTPA Refinery expansion at Panipat Refinery, Naphtha Cracker including HDPE, LLDPE/HDPE, MEG etc. at Panipat, 15MMTPA (300,000 Bbls/day) new grass root refinery at Paradip.

Believes in teamwork and transparent management style and nurturing a progressive outlook for the growth of the organization and motivating the employees to achieve success at the workplace and maintain work-life balance.

Presently he is involved in the consultancy work in Oil & Gas sector having established a private company as “Bankapur Engineers & Consultants Pvt Ltd” providing services in the downstream refining, Petrochemicals, other continuous process industry in the areas of operations, technical trouble shooting, safety, environment related issues, man power assessment. Also involved in advising on the project management to various clients like the project implementing owners, EPC consultants, contractors, venders, fabricators etc. Also helping in monitoring and control of projects on behalf of owners. As a consultant to State Bank of India, reviewing projects for their suitability of technologies, technical viability etc. to help the bank to take proper decision for the purpose of funding.