ONGC seeks marketing rights to sell diesel, petrol

In an obvious move to gear itself for setting up retail outlets for petrol and diesel, ONGC has applied to the ministry of petroleum and nat...

In an obvious move to gear itself for setting up retail outlets for petrol and diesel, ONGC has applied to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas for marketing rights.

However, talking to The Indian Express, ONGC chairman Subir Raha said that as stated earlier, ONGC has no plans to enter into retailing of petrol and diesel immediately. “We applied for marketing rights since we are eligible and we want to have the license with us. Since it is an open license if we see the option later we might enter this segment”, Raha said.

Speaking at the ‘Gastech 2002’, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said that ONGC has applied for authorisation to set up 400-500 retail outlets to sell petrol and diesel in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

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Besides ONGC, Reliance, Essar Oil and Numaligarh Refineries Ltd have also applied for authorisation to retail petrol and diesel. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which is acting as the regulator till such time as the Bill for setting up a petroleum regulatory board is approved by Parliament, is processing all the four applications and is likely to give its verdict on the applications by the month end, Naik said.

While Reliance has applied to government for permission to sell 10 million tonnes of diesel and 2.4 million tonnes of petrol annually through a network of 5849 retail outlets, Essar Oil has sought authorisation to market the two transportation fuels through a retail chain of 1,700 outlets. Naik, however, did not disclose details of the marketing plan submitted by Numaligarh Refinery.

ONGC applied for rights to selling transport fuels on April 30, Naik said. Naik said private companies, who have invested or propose to invest Rs 2,000 crore in oil infrastructure, would be permitted to market petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel.

Beside the present state-run incumbents IOC, BPCL and HPCL, companies which are eligible to seek marketing rights include ONGC, OIL, Kochi Refinery, Chennai Refinery, Numaligarh Refinery and private sector players like Essar Oil, Reliance, Mangalore Refinery and Cairn Energy of UK.