India becomes world's third largest fuel retail market

The number of petrol pumps and gas stations in the country has exceeded one hundred thousand.
New Delhi, December 25 (HS). Due to the efforts of the central government to ensure easy availability of petrol, diesel, and petroleum gas in India, there has been a significant increase in the establishment of the retail petroleum outlet network in recent years. As a result of this development, India has become the world's third-largest fuel retail market. The network of petrol pumps and gas stations in the country has exceeded one hundred thousand.
According to the information provided by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), under the Ministry of Petroleum, there were 100,266 petrol pumps and gas stations in India as of November 30. Only the United States and China have more petrol pumps and gas stations than India. China has only 115,000 petroleum outlets, while the United States has around 195,000 retail petroleum and gas stations.
According to the PPAC report, there has been rapid expansion of petroleum outlets since 2015 to ensure easy availability of petroleum products in rural areas and on national highways. Consequently, the number of petroleum outlets has increased from around 50,000 in 2015 to over 100,000 in a decade. Under the central government's policy to increase the number of petroleum outlets, public sector oil marketing companies have rapidly opened new petrol pumps and gas pumps. The private sector has also been encouraged to establish petroleum outlets.
Currently, public sector oil marketing companies hold more than 90 percent of the national retail petroleum network. Of these petroleum outlets, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) operated 41,664 outlets as of November 30. Similarly, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has 24,605 outlets in operation. While Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has 24,418 retail outlets marketing petroleum products across the country.
Among private sector companies, Nayara Energy Limited, which was launched with an investment by Russian company Rosneft, operates over 6,900 petroleum outlets across the country. Similarly, Reliance Industries Limited sells petroleum products through more than 2,100 retail petroleum outlets, while Shell has 346 retail outlets across the country.
According to the statistics released by the PPAC, there were 50,451 retail petroleum outlets across the country in 2015. At that time, a total of 2,967 retail petroleum outlets were being operated by private sector companies. In 2015, the share of the private sector in the country's retail fuel network was less than 6 percent. However, since 2015, the share of the private sector in the country's retail fuel network has increased to 9.3 percent as the central government's incentives are to open more retail petroleum outlets along national highways and in remote areas.