New policy framework to ensure fair market for oil firms
The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge) Dharmendra Pradhan (3rd L) chairing the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament on the “Marketing in a competitive environment”, in Mumbai on Monday.Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) are looking at expanding distribution network to cover all significant points of consumption in the domestic market, including remote areas of the country. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday held a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas on ‘Marketing in a competitive environment’ in Mumbai. The event attended by CMDs of Public Sector Companies (PSUs) focused on the marketing of petroleum products in a competitive environment. Addressing the gathering, Pradhan said that the government proposes to play a vital role in creating the basic policy – regulatory framework for OMCs, within which a fair and open competitive market can exist and operate in an efficient manner and also ensure that consumer interests are also adequately protected. The Minister lauded the government’s decision of deregulating diesel pricing, saying that linking it to market prices encouraged private players like Essar, Reliance & Shell to re-enter the market and set up more than 3,000 retail outlets across the country. The resultant competition from entry of private players brought focus of all players on enhanced customer value proposition through retail automation and increased customer reach through focused network expansion particularly in rural and highway segment. “At present there are 53,800 retail outlets in the country and estimated 32,000 new retail outlets are required over the next 10 years to cater to the growing customer needs,” he said. The Minister also stressed on the need of improvement in marketing of other petroleum products like air turbine fuel (ATF), kerosene, PNG, CNG, Lubricants and petrochemical feedstock. Under the clean and green initiatives, public sector oil marketing companies have been actively promoting use of ethanol in petrol and bio-diesel in diesel, which will help in connecting the farmers with direct economic activity and cash flow. According to the government’s latest data, India’s cumulative crude oil production in the current fiscal till August stood 1.72% higher than the target for the period and 0.52% higher than the year-on-year production.
September 22, 2015 | 3:52pm IST.
to success.