Reliance, Essar gear up for deregulation

Indian private oil retailers Essar Oil and Reliance Industries plan to boost retail networks if India eases control on fuel prices, a move that will reduce both exports and imports of refined products, officials and analysts said. Essar Oil and Reliance Industries had together captured about 17% of the domestic retail market for diesel fuel and has accounted for 10% of gasoline sales by 2005 before heavily subsidized sales by state-run firms knocked them out of the arena. Reliance operates 653 fuel stations, of the about 1,420 such stations it own. (June 9, 2010)