400,000 bid for fuel pumps; investment of Rs 90,000 crore expected

To hold on to their market monopoly against the aggressive expansion of private fuel retailers like Nayara Energy and Reliance Industries, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) are set to more than double their retail outlets in the next three years. This is likely to see an investment of about Rs 80,000-90,000 crore in the sector. 

The three OMCs — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) — have got bids for 95 per cent of the 78,493 sites they had offered  late last year for new retail outlets. The three companies put together got over 400,000 bids for the areas on offer. “All the three companies are getting enthusiastic response from across the country. We have received offers for over 95 per cent of the locations on offer. IOC is likely to roll out over 37,000 new outlets under this auction, while rest will be shared by other companies,” confirmed Gurmeet Singh, director (marketing), IOC. Bidders have shown interest in 74,608 locations, while 3,885 sites did not get bids.

Singh added the winners of the current round of bidding will be finalised by March 31. 

Based on the December data available with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India has 64,050 retail outlets now - of which 27,459 belong to IOC, 15,357 to HPCL and 14,651 to BPCL. The remaining outlets are shared between private players like Nayara (5,033), Reliance Industries (1,400), Shell (144) and six by other small players. Last year, Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar) has added over 1,500 outlets, going for an expansion against OMCs that have market monopoly. On the other hand, the three OMCs together added close to 900 fuel pumps in 2018-19.

“Investment will depend on whether it is a company-owned dealer operated outlet or dealer-owned dealer operated outlet. The second one may see more investments. During the current round, the average investment per outlet may come to around Rs 1-1.2 crore,” said A D Satyanarayan, President, Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers.

Officials said that in places where there are multiple bids, selection will be done through a computerised process by Kolkata-based MSTC. If 74,608 bids are accepted that will increase the number of outlets in India by 116 per cent to 138,658 in the next three years. Of the total areas on offer, 44,118 got multiple bids and 30,490 got single bids.