India: Reliance to Reopen Service Station Network (Update)
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Friday, 28 November 2008 |
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Reliance Petroleum that shut down all of its petrol pumps earlier this
year because of huge losses, wants to restart selling petrol and diesel
after margins on the two fuels turned positive. Essar has been
reopening its outlets since September.
"Reliance has informed us that they are keen on reopening their
outlets," Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey told reporters. Reliance shut
all of its 1,432 petrol pumps around March after it could not compete
with public sector companies, who sold fuel at rates much lower than
their cost, as they got government subsidies.
However, with the fall in international oil prices, margins on both
petrol and diesel have turned positive. State-run oil companies Indian
Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are making a neat profit
of Rs 9.86 a litre on petrol and Rs 0.70 per litre on diesel.
Essar Oil, the second-largest private fuel retailer in the country, had
begun reopening its petrol pumps when international crude oil prices
started declining in September. Pandey said Essar had written to him
informing that 500 pumps have resumed operations. It plans to open most
of its 1,250 fuel stations by the end of December. The company
began reactivating most of its outlets in southern and western India
from August and would double its retail network by the end of December,
taking it to 1,250 by January 2009.
PetrolWorld 271108
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