The Hindu Business Line : MRPL gets nod to set up retail outlets

THE Government on Wednesday gave Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) permission to set up 500 outlets to retail petrol and diesel. The licence allows MRPL, a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), to market the mass consumption fuels under its own name and logo.

MRPL operates a 9.69 million-tonne refinery at Mangalore, Karnataka, and fulfils the investment requirement of Rs 2,000 crore towards asset creation in the petroleum sector, according to an official release.

Following deregulation of the oil sector, MRPL is the sixth company to have been granted a licence to set up retail outlets in the country. Earlier, marketing rights were given to Reliance Industries Ltd (5,849 petrol stations), Shell India Private Ltd (2,000), Essar Oil Ltd (1,700), ONGC (1,100) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (510).

Initially, MRPL proposes to set up retail outlets in ten states including Karnataka (110), Kerala (22), Tamil Nadu (56), Andhra Pradesh (56), Goa (12), Maharashtra (110), Gujarat (56), Madhya Pradesh (22), Rajasthan (28) and Haryana (28).