India’s largest private sector oil retailer Essar Oil Ltd and state-promoted Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd on Friday announced a partnership to expand CNG presence in the State to offer more fuel choice to customers.
The two companies also announced commissioning of a compressed natural gas (CNG) facility at Essar Oil’s retail outlet at Botad in the State.
This is Essar’s 20th CNG outlet in Gujarat.
“With our tie-up with GSPC, we are increasingly becoming the most-preferred option for multi-fuel-filling retail option in the State. Gujarat is India’s natural gas capital and partnering its own flagship company is a matter of pride for us,” said Mr S. Thangapandian, CEO – Marketing, EOL.
Essar Oil currently operates about 225 retail outlets in Gujarat. Its CNG presence stretches across Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot and Surat. By the end of current year, Essar will have another 30 such facilities across the country.
In Gujarat, Essar Oil has CNG sourcing tie-ups with all major players such as GSPC, Sabarmati Gas, Adani Gas, GAIL and Gujarat Gas for selling CNG at its franchisee-owned and franchise-operated outlets. Essar Oil has similar tie-ups with IGL and MGL for other regions.
The partnerships with CNG companies is a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the chain. While the CNG marketers are able to cut down on their commissioning time and investment by getting access to a ready-made outlet, the franchisee and Essar Oil enjoy a steady revenue stream aided by higher footfalls. The customer also benefits as he gets access to a larger number of CNG refilling stations.
GSPC supplies natural gas to over 3.5 lakh domestic households, about 1,400 commercial and non-commercial establishments and about 1,700 industrial customers. GSPC Gas also supplies natural gas in the form of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) through 137 CNG stations across Gujarat that caters to more than 75,000 vehicles per day.