MRPL to open 30 retail outlets

India’s Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) is reviving a plan to establish retail outlets. “We are going ahead for setting up (fuel) outlets in a guarded way,” said Managing Director R. Rajamani. The company plans to open 30 fuel stations in the next fiscal year starting April 2007, he said. The company has a license to build as many as 500 outlets. MRPL had earlier put on hold its retail plans due to the mounting losses being incurred by oil marketing companies who are forced to sell oil products at a government mandated price. The Indian government sets prices of gasoline, diesel fuel, cooking gas and kerosene to protect domestic consumers from international crude oil price volatility. (December 1, 2006)