Essar Oil to double retail outlets

Essar Oil, the refining and marketing arm of the Essar group, will more than double its distribution network to 3,000 outlets over the next six quarters, S. Thangapandian, Essar Oil’s chief executive officer for oil marketing, said. The firm had shut down all its 1,275 petrol outlets in early 2008 owing to a spike in crude oil prices, but it re-opened them late last year after crude prices eased. Thangapandian said Essar has decided to go ahead and make further investments into the petro-retail business on expectations that the Indian government will implement its deregulation promise. The company currently has 300 outlets under construction and expects to take its network to 1,500 pumps by March 2010.(October 2, 2009)