BPCL says no plan to tie up with private companies for retail expansion

We have enough capabilities to invest more in retail expansion, says company's Chairman and MD

Country's third largest oil marketeer Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has ruled out tying up with private players, saying the PSU has enough capabilities for expanding its retail presence on its own.

Rival Hindustan Petroleum, which is the second largest OMC player, recently said it would be keen to tie up with private players like RIL or Essar for sharing their idle retail infrastructure.

"We have no plans to engage with private players to share their retail infrastructure for marketing as we are hopeful of taking on competition on our own. We don't see any brand synergy in doing so and also we have enough capabilities to invest more in retail expansion," BPCL Chairman and Managing Director S Varadarajan told reporters here over the weekend after the AGM.

The chairman said BPCL had opened more than 900 outlets last fiscal, taking the company's total retail network to over 12,500, the company will open more outlets, but did not specify a number.

It can be noted that private players like Reliance and Essar Oil with thousands of outlets have shut down marketing following the government refusal to free diesel prices after the 2006 oil spike. But with diesel being sold at market price now, they are likely to re-enter marketing now.

HPCL chairman and managing director Nishi Vasudeva had earlier this month said her company would like to tie-up with private players for convenience and to save on capital expenditure, but added nothing had been finalised yet.

Currently, oil firms are selling diesel at 35 paise above market rate as the government has not allowed them officially to cut prices. There have been reports that it may formally announce diesel deregulation post-October 15 assembly elections.