Under the leadership of Dilip Vaswani, former Chairman and Managing Director of Total India and a three-decade veteran of the global energy and lubricants industry, GP Petroleums Ltd (GPPL) is embarking on what could be the biggest transformation in its 50-year history. From a largely India-focused industrial lubricants company, GPPL is preparing to evolve into a diversified international energy and lubricants platform with a projected turnover of about ₹3,000 crore following a planned integration of overseas assets.
Vaswani, who was the first employee of ELF in India, built its India operations from scratch before holding leadership roles across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Philippines with Total, sees striking parallels between his past experience and the opportunity before him at GPPL. “When you are starting from virtually zero, the only way is up,” says Vaswani, Non-Executive Director at GPPL, drawing comparisons with businesses he helped build and expand for Total and ELF across multiple countries.
The restructuring plan revolves around integrating a portfolio of assets acquired by Incubit, GPPL’s new strategic investor that hold close to 14 per cent stake in the company as of June 2026. These include lubricant manufacturing operations in Nigeria and Tanzania, fuel retail networks in Kenya and Uganda, a terminal asset at Pipavav, and Dubai-based lubricant company MagLube. Once consolidated, the combined entity is expected to generate revenue of around ₹3,000 crore, compared with GPPL’s standalone turnover of roughly ₹643 crore as on FY26.
But Vaswani insists the story is not merely about acquisitions. The larger opportunity lies in transforming GPPL’s business mix. While GPPL’s legacy iPOL brand enjoys a strong position in industrial lubricants and rubber process oils, the company has historically had a limited presence in automotive lubricants, a segment that accounts for nearly 55 per cent of India’s lubricant market and offers margins several times higher than industrial products. To address that gap, GPPL is revamping its distribution network, strengthening its leadership team, and leveraging its licensing arrangement with Spanish lubricant major Repsol.
“The main focus is now on growing the automotive business,” Vaswani said. GPPL expects automotive lubricant volumes, currently around 4,000-4,500 tonne a year across the Repsol and iPOL brands, to increase nearly five-fold to about 20,000 tonne over the next five years.
The company plans to position Repsol as its premium offering, competing with global brands such as Castrol and Valvoline, while using iPOL to cater to the mass-market segment. The strategy will rely heavily on expanding its distributor network and deepening engagement with mechanics, who remain key influencers in lubricant purchase decisions.
Beyond India, Vaswani sees Africa as a major growth engine. Having spent years overseeing Total’s businesses across emerging markets, he believes the continent offers both scale and attractive margins. GPPL plans to expand its fuel retail network in Kenya and Uganda from about 40 stations to nearly 100 over the next few years, while also exploring opportunities in neighbouring African markets.
The next phase could extend into Southeast Asia, a region Vaswani knows intimately from his years leading Total’s Asia-Pacific operations. Once the current integration is completed and stabilised, GPPL will evaluate expansion opportunities across the region through a combination of the iPOL and Repsol brands.
Technology is another pillar of the growth blueprint. GPPL has recently appointed an AI leader and is investing in digital tools aimed at improving efficiency and enabling expansion without a proportional increase in costs. “With the existing headcount, we can probably support a business twice the current size,” Vaswani said, highlighting how artificial intelligence will support scalability rather than replace jobs.
For Vaswani, the GPPL mandate is an opportunity to apply lessons learned from decades of building businesses across continents. “India is where the growth is,” he said, outlining a vision that combines domestic expansion, international integration and disciplined execution to create a significantly larger global enterprise.
Published on October 12, 2026
