Close on the heels of the Tatas exiting from Tata-BP, Tata Engineering has forged a five-year agreement with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) for marketing co-branded lubricants.

Earlier, Tata Engineering and the erstwhile Tata-BP had a marketing alliance for co-branded lubricants.

Following the break up between the Tatas and British Petroleum, the Tata firm was looking for a partner, it is learnt.

The co-branded lubricants are expected to hit the domestic market soon. These will be marketed through the retail outlets of BPCL, one of the leading petro marketing firms in the country, and Tata Engineering’s dealers, distributors and service networks, a BPCL press release said.

Ravi Kant, executive director of Tata Engineering and Sanjay Krishnamurti, executive director of BPCL signed the agreement at a function on June 13 in Mumbai in the presence of BPCL’s chairman and managing director (designate) S Behuria and other senior executives from BPCL and Telco.

Meanwhile, the state-run BPCL is planning to phase out some unviable retail outlets. It is simultaneously drawing up strategies to set up 150 new outlets in major locations.

The company, which has a 4,500-strong network of retail outlets across the country, continues to acquire dealer-owned outlets in a bid to control maximum retail sites.

It has also plans to focus on opening retail outlets along highways and in small towns.