BP, Rosneft eyeing India's US$117b oil retail market

Mumbai

GLOBAL oil majors BP plc and Rosneft PJSC are eyeing a piece of India's US$117 billion retail market for fossil fuels, threatening to shake up government-owned companies that have faced little competition for a decade.

BP has already secured licences to open as many as 3,500 fuel stations in the world's second most populous nation. Rosneft gained access to about 2,700 pumps through last month's acquisition of Essar Oil Ltd, which has plans to add 2,600 more outlets. Along with Reliance Industries Ltd and Royal Dutch Shell plc, the private players will try to chip away at the dominant position of three state-owned enterprises that control 90 per cent of market volume.