Reliance Industries (RIL) intends to increase the competition in the fuel retailing space by opening around 5,000 outlets.

The country’s largest private sector oil and gas operator would initially start the 750 fuel stations, which were closed due to uncompetitive fuel rates compared with the public sector fuel stations. The company plans to eventually increase the number to 5,000 outlets after diesel prices are completely deregulated.

A senior RIL official told Financial Chronicle that the company is looking at all the strategic locations across the country especially in the north and the east, where it does not have a presence. Also, it is taking a fresh look at already identified locations to find if those have now come to be served by BPCL, HPCL or IOC pumps.

Mukesh Ambani’s company, at present, has its presence in 12 states and plans to have its footprints in other states too.

The government on June 25 deregulated petrol prices, as a result of which retail price of motor spirit was increased by Rs 3.50 per litre. It also announced that the empowered group of ministers had decided to deregulate diesel prices, but had allowed the retail price to be raised by only Rs 2 per litre for now.

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL has been supplying fuel at almost the same rate as public sector companies from 650 outlets mostly in the southern and western regions of the country. The company was forced to shut around 750 fuel stations in 2008 because it was not able to match the subsidized prices of HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil.

The company has four types of petrol pumps which includes the Avon Plazas, where it provides all sorts of facilities to customers, such as restaurants, telephone facilities and lavatories. It also plans to open pumps with garages, where trucks and other vehicles can be repaired.

Morgan Stanley in a report said, “RIL should gain from the recent price hike and the deregulation of petrol prices, as it currently has around 1,500 outlets ready to tap gasoline marketing margins.”

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) may have won a large oil block in Venezuela but the Petroleum Ministry wants Reliance Industries to join the project to give stability to the venture.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of the state-run explorer, and Reliance had in 2008 teamed up to bid for the Venezuela’s Carabobo field auction but last year the Mukesh Ambani-run firm walked out sighting delays in the bid round. OVL subsequently roped in Spain’s Repsol YPF and Malaysian state Petronas to win Carabobo-1 heavy oilfield.

But since the project involves investments that may over the life of the project run into USD 40 billion, the Oil Ministry wants Reliance back into the project, sources in know of the development said.

Sources said fillers at very high level were sent to Reliance but it has so far remained non-committal on taking the state.

Reliance has, however, agreed to bail the state-run firms out agreeing to buy over one-fifth of the 400,000-480,000 barrels per day of oil production envisaged from the project.

OVL, Repsol and Petronas all have an 11 per cent stake each in the project, while Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have 3.5 per cent each. The remaining 60 per cent is held by Venezuela’s state Petroleos de Venezuela (PdV).

As per the bid conditions, the foreign firms, who were offered a maximum of 40 per cent stake in the project, had to commit to offtake the entire production.

Sources said of the planned output, Repsol had indicated it can take 165,000 barrels per day while Petronas said it could take 100,000 bpd. The remaining 220,000 bpd was split equally between OVL and OIL.

OVL’s share of 110,000 bpd would go to ONGC’s subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), while Reliance agreed to take OIL’s share for at least 10 years from the start-up in 2016-17.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/oil-gas/OilMin-wants-RIL-to-join-hands-with-ONGC-for-Venezuela-project/articleshow/5749798.cms

Almost 75 per cent of Lanka IOC Plc’s petrol and diesel demand for the first six months of the current fiscal has been met by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
“For the first six months, of the 300,000 tonnes of products imported almost 225,000 tonnes have come from RIL,” Mr K.R. Suresh Kumar, Managing Director, Lanka IOC, told Business Line.
“In 2008-09 we had imported 550,000 tonnes of products of which 30-40 per cent came from RIL. Sri Lanka has just one refinery (owned by Ceylon Petroleum) with a capacity of 2 million tonnes, and the demand is close to 4 million tonnes for all petroleum products. Thus, to meet the balance demand we had to import.”

Reliance operates two refineries in Jamnagar — one with capacity of 33 million tonnes and the other of 27 million tonnes.
Declining to share the numbers at which Lanka IOC sources these products from RIL, he said, “Lanka IOC procures through a tendering process and RIL has bagged orders against tenders. It is at a very competitive price.”

Lanka IOC sells auto fuels through its 151 retail outlets with plans to add 20 during the current calendar year. On how much is the company’s performance impacted by the volatility in international crude prices, he said, “The performance is affected. As there is not much of storage capacity in the country, we have to import more frequently resulting in high costs.”
Besides, the company also incurs revenue loss on sale of petrol and diesel as the price is fixed by the Sri Lankan Government. “Though there is constant interaction between the Government and the companies the prices are not completely in sync with international prices,” he said.

Currently, petrol is sold at Sri Lankan Rs 115 a litre (Indian Rs 50 a litre) and diesel is sold for Sri Lankan Rs 73 a litre (Rs 30 a litre). The revenue loss on petrol is Sri Lankan Rs 8 a litre and on diesel is Sri Lankan Re 1 a litre.
The company has no plans to enter the cooking fuel (domestic LPG) retailing business, he said. “For Lanka IOC the main revenue generator has been the retailing business. But now there is a conscious effort to change it by diversifying into bunker fuels and bitumen.”
On if the company has any plans to set up a refinery in Sri Lanka, he said, “It will not be economically viable.”

The company recently got Govt concessions for exports and is looking at exporting lubes to West Asia, Singapore, and Maldives.