Hyderabad, October 12: With the agricultural sector increasingly adopting mecahnisation, the rural market is opening up new opportunities for petroleum companies. As usage of agro machinery including tractors and threshers is on the rise, the requirement for basic infrastructure such as petrol filling stations is being felt sharply across rural towns and villages.
Following liberalisation in the petroleum sector, several public and private sector companies such as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Reliance, Shell and Essar have set up operations and are expanding across the country.
On the demand side, in Andhra Pradesh alone, the total number of registered vehicles increased from 51 lakh in 2003 to 56 lakh in 2007. It was also estimated that the number of vehicles registered and plying across the state currently could exceed 65 lakh.
Similarly, the consumption of petrol and diesel in rural areas including agriculture sector has witnessed a steep growth as a result of growing income. For instance, under the ‘Jalayagnam’ programme, there are more than 80 irrigation projects under progress spread across rural areas. Each of these projects involving earth-moving and allied machinery consume high volumes of diesel.
However, currently, most of the petrol pumps operated by public and private players are concentrated within city limits and are situated in urban localities. There are numerous places alongside the national and state highways that do not have petrol pumps within 15 kms radius. As a result, villagers have to commute long distances to source petrol and diesel thereby adding costs and time spent on filling petrol.
According to estimates, about 30 lakh barrels of petroleum products are consumed every day. But, of the 38,700 petrol pumps dotting the country, only 3,400 are located in the state selling about 5.53 lakh kilolitres of petrol and diesel every month.
Recently, the petroleum secretary had revealed that India, which was witnessing a steady growth, was seeing 13 per cent growth in the usage of petrol and cooking gas, while for diesel, the growth stood at 5 per cent.
–Agencies