Keyword

Petro-retailing, Non-Fuel Retailing, Regulation and Business Environment

Abstract

The oil crises of the 1970s were the major driving factor which made the government to intervene in the oil & gas sector. Until the late 1990s, the country’s fuel prices were controlled by the government through a policy called the Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM). Subsequent to the 1991 economic reforms in India, had given a new direction to the oil & gas sector. The oil industry is divided into three streams like upstream, midstream and downstream. The upstream basically covers exploration and production of crude oil & gas, midstream covers movement of materials through pipelines and downstream covers marketing of petroleum products through retail outlets (ROs). In general term selling petroleum products through outlets is known as Petro-retailing business. Petro-retailing is the face of oil marketing companies and sells products/services directly to the customers. Petro-retailing in Indian market is facing many challenges like low margins, increasing cost of land in urban as well as in rural areas, since switching cost for customer is low and expecting high services leads to a very low loyalty for the outlets and increasing competition due to entry of private players like Reliance, Shell & Essar etc. To overcome all burning challenges oil marketing companies now thinking of offerings non-fuel services/allied services like convenience stores, ATMs, Fast food outlets etc. The basic objectives behind such offerings are not only to maximize the profit but increase the c


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Company’s websites: 

  1. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL): www.bpcl.com
  2. Essar Oil Limited (EOL): www.essar.com
  3. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL): www.hpcl.com
  4. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL): www.iocl.com
  5. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL): www.ril.com
  6. Shell India: www.shell.com