HPCL to add 800 retail outlets this fiscal year

India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) will go for a major retail expansion this fiscal year, by adding another 800 retail outlets in the next few months. The move will boost the company’s  total fuel dispensing stations to 10,100. HPCL will invest up to Rs500 crore (US$106.29 million) in the remaining months of the fiscal year. Deregulation of gasoline prices, and later of diesel fuel prices, is fueling the expansion, as well as rising energy demand in the country. HPCL Chairman S. Roy Choudhury said the company was also in the process of diversifying into other energy sources such as ethanol, biodiesel and wind energy to meet  rising energy demand. (August 28, 2010)