Public sector oil firms plan to set up over 4600 petrol stations and 907 LPG sale agencies in the current fiscal, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.
Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest oil company, which has over 10,000 petrol pumps, plans to set up 1,512 bunks in 2005-06 and 294 LPG distributorships (gas agencies), he said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
Mumbai-based Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd plans to add 1,735 petrol pumps while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd has plans to set up 920 petrol stations. IBP, a subsidiary of IOC, would add 500 retail outlets.
BPCL would also set up 178 LPG distributorships, HPCL another 375 while IBP would set up 60 gas agencies, he said.
India already has over 25,000 petrol stations, probably the highest in the world.
Aiyar said private sector Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Shell India have been authorised to market transportation fuel and they propose to set up 5849, 1700 and 2000 retail outlets respectively.
The three companies together have notched over a 1000 petrol stations.
"However, there is no fixed time-frame for setting up these retail outlets," he said.
To another question, Aiyar said the expenditure incurred by public sector oil firms for marketing petroleum products in 2004-05 was almost at the same levels as the previous year.
Indian Oil Corp spent Rs 2284 crore (Rs 22.84 billion) in 2004-05 {Rs 2449 crore (Rs 24.49 billion) in 2003-04}, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Rs 896 crore (Rs 8.96 billion), Bharat Petroleum Corp Rs 1215 crore (Rs 12.15 billion) and IBP spent Rs 410 crore (Rs 4.10 billion) in 2004-05.