Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is an Indian state-owned oil and natural gas company with its headquarters at Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has about 25% market-share in India among public-sector companies (PSUs) and a strong marketing infrastructure. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation owns 51.11% shares in HPCL and others are distributed amongst financial institutes, public and other investors. The company is ranked 367th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2016.

HPCL was incorporated in 1974 after the takeover and merger of erstwhile Esso Standard and Lube India Limited by the Esso (Acquisition of Undertakings in India) Act 1974. Caltex Oil Refining (India) Ltd. (CORIL) was taken over by the Government of India in 1976 and merged with HPCL in 1978 by the CORIL-HPCL Amalgamation Order, 1978. Kosan Gas Company was merged with HPCL in 1979 by the Kosangas Company Acquisition Act, 1979.

In 2003, following a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the Supreme Court of India restrained the Central government from privatising Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum without the approval of Parliament. As counsel for the CPIL, Rajinder Sachar and Prashant Bhushan said that the only way to disinvest in the companies would be to repeal or amend the Acts by which they were nationalised in the 1970s. As a result, the government would need a majority in both houses to push through any privatisation.