Oil retailers to open 35,600 new outlets in next 3 years.

India, which already has the highest number of petrol pumps in the world, will get another 35,600 retail outlets in next 2-3 years as government embarks on a massive expansion plan to boost oil product availability.

The country has 51,870 petrol pumps with Indian Oil Corp (IOC) being the market leader with 23,993 outlets, followed by Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. (HPCL) with 12,869 pumps and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd. (BPCL) with 12,123 outlets.

Private sector has meager presence with Reliance Industries and Essar Oil owning about 1,400 outlets each and Shell operating three.

'As part of their plan to increase the accessibility and availability of oil products, the retail network of public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) is being expanded by increasing the number of retail outlets and LPG distributorship in the country,' Oil Ministry said.

Besides petrol pumps, OMCs have 13,896 LPG dealers (IOC 7,035, BPCL 3,355 and HPCL 3,506).

Listing its achievements since the NDA government took office, the ministry said OMCs have 'advertised for setting up of new retail outlets at 35,668 locations and new LPG distributorships at over 7000 locations.'

This, it said, will 'improve availability of fuel in the farthest areas of the country.


ET