The oil giant said the new centre would lead BP’s development and application of digital solutions as it works to increasingly automate and transform its transactional processes. (Representative image)

British Petroleum (BP) on Thursday announced that it planned to set up a new centre for its global business services (GBS) operations in India at Pune.

The centre, which would be owned and operated by BP, would provide business processing and advanced analytics capabilities in support to its businesses worldwide. The Pune operations are expected to begin by January 2021. When fully operational, the facility would employ around 2,000 staff.

The energy major’s GBS organisation will support digital innovation globally. It will bring together innovation and data analytics to deliver efficient and effective business solutions for businesses. From customer service and vendor payments to financial accounting and control, it would support every part of BP. The new centre in India will assume operational ownership of third-party business processes and seek to further extend its work with analytics and data science capabilities to pursue better business outcomes.

Camille Drummond, senior vice-president of GBS, BP, said, “As BP works to reinvent itself and reimagine energy, we are excited to accelerate the transformation of our business processes. Our new centre in India will enable us to put digital at the heart of BP’s businesses.”

Establishing a centre in India will allow BP to tap into the growing digital talent pool in a country that is strategically important for BP.

The oil giant said the new centre would lead BP’s development and application of digital solutions as it works to increasingly automate and transform its transactional processes. The new centre will add to BP’s growing business presence in India.

The energy major’s regional president and head of country, Sashi Mukundan, said, “This was another significant step forward for the company in India. The centre will allow the company to provide innovative solutions as it taps into India’s diverse and skilled workforce, expands footprint here and develop low carbon businesses around the world.”

The new centre will begin to recruit candidates in the next few months, aiming to rapidly grow to a workforce of about 2,000 over time. With its many investments in India, BP employs around 7,500 people in the oil, gas, lubricants and petrochemicals businesses.