State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), including Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL), will set up 6,000 fuel retail outlets this fiscal year with a major focus on rural and semi-urban areas, besides highways, as sales in urban areas have stagnated, said OMC officials.
BPCL, which plans to add 1,800 retail outlets, registered better growth in sales in rural and small-town areas in the last quarter.
“We don’t have adequate presence in rural and semi-urban markets, where growth is happening more in the country today because metros have saturated. So, we are trying to capture the market which are growing,” said N. Vijayagopal, chief financial officer, BPCL.
