(LiveMint)
Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) are set to expand their fuel retail network after a gap of nearly four years. The three state-run companies have an ambitious plan to open a combined nearly 50,000 fuel outlets over the next three years, said officials at IOCL.
“With over 50,000 new fuel stations and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distributorships coming up in the next few years, benchmarking to global standards and generating additional revenue streams from non-fuel business is an idea worth exploring by the oil marketing companies (OMCs),” Sanjiv Singh, chairman, IOCL, told shareholders at an annual general meeting in Mumbai.
BPCL and HPCL did not comment on Singh’s announcement. The companies are expected to formally announce their plans over the next two to three weeks, an IOCL official said on condition of anonymity. It costs between ₹60 lakh to ₹3 crore to open a fuel outlet depending on the location.“Locations need to be decided carefully lest there be duplication. So the OMCs have for the first time come together to work on such a scale,” said a second IOCL official, who declined to be named.
