RIL's Gapco looking at expanding in Africa

Gapco, RIL's international fuel retailing venture, operated a total of 131 outlets in the East African region

The domestic fuel retail market may not be an exciting one for Reliance Industries (RIL), but its international fuel retailing venture — Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation (Gapco) — is doing well as RIL plans to expand its reach in Africa.

“RIL is happy with Gapco’s growth and looking at expanding in the neighbouring markets in Africa,” said a company executive aware of the developments.

Gapco operates 131 outlets in the East African region — 80 retail outlets operational in Tanzania; 37 in Uganda; 12 in Rwanda and two in Kenya.

During 2012-13, RIL realised strong Gapco volume growth in East African marketing businesses, with sales jumping by 81 per cent to 2,372 tonnes  kilolitres, the company said in its annual report.

RIL did not reply to an email questionnaire seeking expansion details with regard to geography and investments.

“RIL is market leader in Tanzania with 80 retail outlets. It only makes sense to expand and establish presence in other regions. We are here to do business,” added the executive.

Gapco on its website states it is registered in Mauritius and is one of the largest independent petroleum marketing and trading organisations, primarily involved in petroleum product imports, retail and wholesale marketing, trading, storage, distribution, supply and transport of oil products to the countries in east and central Africa.

Gapco enjoys support from RIL in sourcing fuel and has depots in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with a combined storage capacity of almost 220 million litres.

The company has one of the largest storage facilities at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and at Mombassa, Kenya. Gapco also provides hospitality to other oil companies for product storage, according to the company website.

In India, however, RIL has only 287 of its retail outlets operational in the southern and western regions and the north-eastern states. RIL has 1,470 retail outlets in the country.

“Resuming operation in all geographies and scaling up of sales would be possible after clarity on implementation of market determined prices for gasoline and diesel,” the company states in its annual report.