ENERGY-MRPL-PETROL

Gurdip Singh

MRPL not to enter into retail sale of petrol

New Delhi, Jan 21 (UNI) Mr R S Sharma, Chairman of MRPL and CMD of ONGC, today ruled out getting into the business of retail selling of petrol. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Sharma said the existing business circumstances do not make good proposition to set up petrol pumps.He attributed this to the government's decision to subsidise under-recoveries to just three state-run oil marketing companies, namely Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.Given the wide gulf between international prices of crude and domestic sale of petrol and petroleum products, it does not make good business sense to invest in setting up petrol pumps.Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is a subsidiary of ONGC which has about 72 per cent stake in the refinery.As a consequence of this wide difference, two private players--Reliance Industries Ltd and Essar Oil-- had to shut down their petrol pumps when international prices of crude oil touched the roof. It had become unviable for RIL and Essar Oil to sell petrol in the retail faced with competition from state-run companies selling oil at discounted price. With a sobering of global crude oil prices, RIL has reopened some of its petrol pumps.Mr Sharma made these remarks while addressing a press conference to announce ONGC Q3 results, but did not hesitate to take on questions relating to the MRPL.