The Hindu Business Line : 500 private petro retail outlets coming up soon

THE private sector petro-marketing companies will be setting up 500 retail outlets to market petrol and diesel in the next four months, according to the Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik.

Inaugurating an oil and gas conference organised by Tata Energy Research Institute, Mr Naik on Tuesday said that the Ministry had recently undertaken a review of the licences issued to the private sector for setting up retail outlets.

So far, 11,159 retail outlets have been sanctioned with Reliance Industries Ltd proposing to set up 5,489 outlets, Essar Oil 1,700, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation 1,100, Numaligarh Refineries Ltd (NRL) 510 and Shell 2000. At present, there are around 20,000 retail outlets set up entirely by the public sector.

Essar Oil Ltd on Tuesday said it will set up 50 petrol stations before the end of this fiscal. "We will commission six to seven petrol pumps this month and will take up the strength to 50 by March 31," the Essar Oil President (Retail), Mr Raman Pandya, told presspersons on the sidelines of the conference. Essar plans to set up 2,000 petrol stations in the country by the end of 2005.

On the proposed disinvestment of Government equity in the oil sector, Mr Naik said that the Government would be offering 26 per cent of residual stake in IBP in the next two months besides the sale of 10 per cent stakes in ONGC and GAIL.

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