India’s state-owned oil retailers told to stop adding new retail outlets

The Petroleum Ministry of India has published a directive to the three public sector oil companies in the country–Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation–to stop their planned investments on 16,000 new retail outlets, which would have cost about Rs 1-1.5 crore (US$183,000-274,000) each. Ajay Bansal, general secretary, Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT), said that this order was expected to stem the fast growth of new retail outlets, considering the fact that the country’s average sales of petroleum products have gone down from 210 kiloliters (kl) to 130 kl a month per retail outlet. However, the order stated that private prospective dealers could invest in setting up new retail stations. (December 9, 2012)