The government has granted auto fuel retailing licence to seven new entities including Reliance Industries Ltd and a joint venture of Reliance and BP, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli said in a statement.
The licences were given under a new liberalised rule that allows any entity with a minimum net worth of Rs 250 crore to apply for authorisation to retail petrol and diesel.
Under the November 2019 policy, “marketing authorisation” has been granted to Reliance Industries Ltd, IMC Ltd, Onsite Energy Pvt Ltd, Assam Gas Company, M K Agrotech, RBML Solutions India Ltd and Manas Agro Industries and Infrastructure, Teli said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha (house of the people).
RIL already had a fuel retailing licence, under which it had set up over 1,400 petrol pumps in the country. But this licence was transferred to its subsidiary Reliance BP Mobility (RBML). And so, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s firm applied and got another licence.
The government has granted auto fuel retailing licence to seven new entities including Reliance Industries Ltd and a joint venture of Reliance and BP, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli said in a statement. The licences were given under a new liberalised rule that allows any entity with a minimum net worth of Rs 250 crore to apply for authorisation to retail petrol and diesel.
State-owned oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) — currently own most of the 77,709 petrol pumps in the country. RBML, Nayara Energy (formerly Essar Oil) and Royal Dutch Shell are the private players in the market but with limited presence. RML has 1,422 outlets, Nayara 6,152 while Shell has just 270 pumps.
BP had a few years back secured a licence to set up 3,500 pumps but has not yet started doing so. It has since decided to venture into the business with RIL with plans to scale up RIL’s present network strength to 5,500. “The entities while applying for marketing authorization have to, inter alia, provide details about their marketing plan including details of the source of supply.
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