India may get Saudi petrol pumps soon

After deregulation of petrol and diesel prices, global oil major Saudi Aramco and Total SA of France have shown interest in setting up petrol pumps in India.

Previously some private refiners including Reliance and Essar had set up petrol pumps in India, but they were forced to roll back their plans as petrol and diesel prices were not deregulated.

Back then state owned oil marketing companies were selling fuels at subsidised rates which were less than market prices. However, now with dere-gulation in fuel prices competition can be expected in this sector.

“Saudi Aramco and Total are interested in getting into our domestic market. They are welcome to invest within our conditions,”said oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan. India is also set to replace China as the biggest driver of fuel consumption in the world.

He also said that the government will appoint 10,000 new LPG distributors this through a revamped system to increase the penetration of the clean fuel in the country. This will be in addition to 16,000 existing dealers in the country.