Speed of decision making in India not good for its image: BP executive

The speed of decision making in India is not good for its brand as processes have delayed BP's investment in the country, a top official of the British oil major said Monday.

BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley also highlighted that price controls were not good for the oil sector and would not solve problem of high fuel prices in the long term.

"There was lot of change in the contracts but comparative competitive ... capital did not get the results as expected. As BP, we want to do large products here not small ones," said Dudley in a question and answer session at India Energy Forum by CERAWeek on Monday.

Expressing his concerns about procedures delaying investment in India, he said, "I think the speed of the decision making will be faster in India. The speed of the decision making is not good for brand India. We have to go through processes like this and it probably slows down our investments. I am confident it would be faster. Otherwise we would not be investing such huge amount."
Commenting on fuel price control, Dudley said, "Price Control is not good for the (petroleum) sector. It reduces the income of oil marketing companies. It reduces the dividend back to the government. I understand the oil prices are off the fair way of comfort for the world right. It is painful for not just India , but for the other countries around the world. Price controls won't solve the problem in long term."
Talking about India's investment potential he said, "India is very important for the BP. It has been (exactly) 100 years here. Castrol Brand is actually there, is BP. We have been working with Reliance under gas basins 2011. There have been delays in terms with the gas pricing. India competes with countries like Brazil and Mexico. It has attracted USD 1 billion investments in upstream. India is making itself competitive for investments."
About the BP venture into downstream (refining business) he said, "We are talking to Reliance about possible (venture) in downstream together. We are working our plans. But give us sometime."