Essar Oil aims to expand its petrol pump network to 5,000 over the next 12-15 months from 2,400 at present, a senior company official said.
The Ruias-run firm, which has agreed to sell a majority stake to Russia’s Rosneft, expects its export volume to nearly halve from the present 45-50 per cent once these 5,000 outlets are operational.
The company also expects sales volume to touch 10 million KL over the next two-three years from 2.5 million KL now. “Oil price deregulation has given us an excellent opportunity and we’ve been able to ramp up our network from about 1,600 a year ago to about 2,400 now.
Essar Oil MD and CEO Lalit Kumar Gupta said that they are planning to open new filling stations in small towns, especially in tier-2 and 3 cities and along highways. When asked about investments, he said it will need about Rs 2,100 crore, mainly through franchisees, and create nearly 20,000 new jobs in the next one year alone.
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