The Hindu Business Line : Make use of technology, oil marketing cos told

Things to do
Install GPS equipment for monitoring movement of tank trucks by March next year.
Finish marking of potential adulterants - kerosene, naphtha and solvents, both indigenously produced and imported, by July this year.
Get third-party certification for all retail outlets selling more than 100 kl of products a month.

New Delhi , May 12

To beat competition and curb adulteration, the Petroleum Ministry has asked the state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) — Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp — to make use of technology for automation of retail stations, similar to the private sector oil companies. This would not only help in strengthening their institutional mechanism, but also check adulteration, a Ministry official said.

The OMCs were advised by the Ministry to complete the automation of their retail outlets (ROs) selling more than 200 kl per month by March 2007. Adulteration of petrol and diesel on transport fuel has been a serious cause of concern. The Petroleum Ministry has been maintaining that the possibility of adulteration of these two products cannot be ruled out due to huge price difference between petrol/diesel and various adulterants available in the market and the easy miscibility of these products.

Review meeting

Official sources said that at a recent meeting called by the Petroleum Secretary, Mr M.S. Srinivasan to review the performance of OMCs, it was felt that while the companies have expanded their RO network, adequate attention has not been paid to improving the institutional and technological mechanisms. This, according to the Ministry, has resulted in not only reduction in their average throughput per RO but also complaints of malpractices.

The Ministry has also asked them to install global positioning system (GPS) equipment for monitoring the movement of tank trucks by March next year. The Petroleum Secretary has asked IndianOil to examine the possibility of importing GPS equipment on industry basis with an aim to cover 100 per cent tank trucks, which are around 30,000 (industry basis).

The Ministry also told the OMCs to finish the marking of potential adulterants - kerosene, naphtha and solvents, both indigenously produced and imported, by July this year. Besides, the OMCs have been asked to have third-party certification of all the retail outlets selling more than 100 kl per month of the products.

According to an IndianOil executive, the company is already running its quality and quantity (Q&Q) campaign across all its outlets, and has introduced its automation and auto-billing programme in five markets — Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Pune in the first phase. The company is in the process of expanding it to other cities across the country, he said.

IndianOil's retail modernisation and upgradation programme includes relaunch of Xtracare outlets in the urban market.

The company proposes to roll out 250-300 such ROs in phase one, and by the end of this fiscal year it is targeting anything between 800 and 1,000 such outlets.

For the highway market, the company plans to have 250 more `Swagat' ROs from the existing 90. Besides, the company also proposes to launch 500 new outlets for the urban market and 1,000 for the rural market.

The entire programme is expected to attract a total investment of about Rs 1,200 crore for the fiscal.

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