Indian Oil Company Limited- a marketers Perspective

1. Introduction:
This project was undertaken as a part of 2nd trimester marketing management-I course. We have selected Indian Oil Corporation Limited, a premier oil company of India. Currently its the market leader in this segment. The product category chosen for this project is gasoline and diesel which are the major products of the refinery. This report is divided into two parts. Part-A deals with the study of macro and the micro environment of the company in terms of its current status and its status as a leader. Part-B explains the market structure for gasoline and diesel. We have used Porters 5Forces competitive model to explain the competition in the market.

Part-A 2. Brief profile of IOCL

Beginning in 1959 as Indian Oil Company Ltd., Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. was formed in 1964 with the merger of Indian Refineries Ltd. (established 1958). Indian Oil and its subsidiaries account for 49% petroleum products market share, 40.4% refining capacity and 69% downstream sector pipelines capacity in India.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (Indian Oil) is India's largest commercial enterprise, with a sales turnover of Rs. 2, 47,479 crore (US $ 61.70 billion) and profits of Rs. 6,963 crore (US $ 1.74 billion) for the year 2007-08. Indian Oil is also the highest ranked Indian company in the prestigious Fortune 'Global 500' listing, having moved up 19 places to the 116th position in 2008. It is also the 18th largest petroleum company in the world.

3. Vision and mission of IOCL

Vision A major diversified, trans-national, integrated energy company, with national leadership and a strong environment conscience, playing a national role in oil security & public distribution. Mission

To achieve international standards of excellence in all aspects of energy and diversified business with focus on customer delight through value of products and services, and cost reduction.

To maximize creation of wealth, value and satisfaction for the stakeholders. To attain leadership in developing, adopting and assimilating state-of-the-art technology for competitive advantage.

To provide technology and services through sustained Research and Development. To foster a culture of participation and innovation for employee growth and contribution.

To cultivate high standards of business ethics and Total Quality Management for a strong corporate identity and brand equity.

To help enrich the quality of life of the community and preserve ecological balance and heritage through a strong environment conscience.

4. Indian Oil as a Leader-Marketers Perspective

Indian Oil follows the typical competitive strategies for a market leader by a) Defending its market share BPCL was the first to launch differentiated product.IOCL also launched similar product in order to defend its leadership position. It was a kind of Counteroffensive Defense. The Indian petroleum market was never the same again after 1991.The market was opened for the foreign players and the economy changed from closed to open. During the year 2007-08, every brand in Indian Oils portfolio further consolidated its leadership status. In fact, XTRAPREMIUM registered a whopping 89% growth in sales over the previous year to emerge as the country's leader in the branded petrol segment. Similarly XTRAMILE Diesel, the numero uno in the branded diesel segment, saw a sales growth of 65% over the last year. XTRAPOWER Fleet Card usage went up by 26% and earned the recognition as the largest Loyalty Programme on the basis of sales turnover at the recently concluded Loyalty Summit 2008. During the year around Rs 10,000 crore worth of fuels were transacted using the XTRAPOWER Fleet Card. India's largest lubricant brand, SERVO registered a 4.4%

volume growth during the year and retained its No. 1 brand status. In Aviation Fuel Business too Indian Oil retained its market share of 62.3% during the year. a) Expansion of the total market As the flagship national oil company in the downstream sector, Indian Oil reaches precious petroleum products to millions of people every day through a countrywide network of about 34,000 sales points. They are backed for supplies by 166 bulk storage terminals and depots, 101 aviation fuel stations and 89 Indane (LPG) bottling plants. About 7,100 bulk consumer pumps are also in operation for the convenience of large consumers, ensuring products and inventory. Indian Oil operates the largest and the widest network of petrol & diesel stations in the country, numbering over 17,600. It reaches Indane cooking gas to the doorsteps of over 50 million households in nearly 2,700 markets through a network of about 5,000 Indane distributors.

Indian Oil's ISO-9002 certified Aviation Service commands over 62% market share in aviation fuel business, meeting the fuel needs of domestic and international flag carriers, private airlines and the Indian Defence Services. The Corporation also enjoys a dominant share of the bulk consumer business, including that of railways, state transport undertakings, and industrial, agricultural and marine sectors

Future Objectives of the company: To enhance availability of domestic LPG cylinders, Indian Oil is also pioneering the launch of new generation composite LPG cylinders using materials like HDPE, PET and FRP. The composite cylinder will have 10.5 kg of LPG and nearly 2 lakh such composite cylinders are proposed to be imported on an industry basis in the first phase and test marketing will be undertaken by Indian Oil in Bangalore this year.

5. SWOT Analysis for IOCL

External environment Opportunity: - The IOCL has much opportunity in the present market conditions. This is because the petroleum products are become a need for everyone and still contains a lot of scope for customization. The various opportunities are listed below.

Since the company has the maximum no. Of out lets and also the maximum no. Of refineries in India, it can very easily go for extension at any point of time, and can introduce any new products, which will get support from its huge market network.

The company can make the buying process more easy for the customers, by implying many more schemes in the range of XTRAPOWER AND XTRAREWARD.

The company can think over the issue to build its own pipelines, so that it will be a independent player and it will also support its aviation fuel supply.

Company have a great scope in E&P. It is already involves in E&P but only in a very limited scale.

Threats: - since the company is the market leader in the field , so have maximum threats from the other players and many other issues. The lists of threats are given below. The foreign players with more advanced technology are the biggest treat for the company. The crude oil supply is also a big issue in front of the company, because the company cannot fix its price and so, some time had operate in loss also. it is the biggest problem because the maximum part of their crude is been imported. In future the market will welcome more private players, which will eat up its market share. If the Govt. Policies allow the private players to set their own price, the the private player can seriously harm the market share of IOCL.

Internal environment Strengths

IOC controls 10 refineries, by virtue of which it has a total share of around 40% of Indias overall refining capacity. IOC has also acquired equity stakes in CPCL and BRPL, and in 2001, these refineries became subsidiaries of IOC.

58% of IOCs refining capacity is located in the Northern and Western regions, which are high demand and high growth areas.

Although its refineries are located the interior of the country, and not near the major ports IOC has a very strong distribution network by virtue of having a share of 48% in the countrys product pipelines. The total capacity of these product pipelines is 49.79 MMT.

IOC also acquired management control of the marketing company IBP, thereby strengthening its position in these activities. It also has a dominant share in all segments in terms marketing infrastructure. Its network includes 19830 retail outlets, 8000 LPG distributors, and 6492 kerosene/LDO dealers.

By virtue of entering into extensive joint venture agreements, and of its own initiative as well, the company has a presence in various other related activities such as petroleum storage, pipelines, lube additives, exploration, petrochemicals, gas, training and consultancy, etc.

The company has already entered overseas markets such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Oman and is presently considering entering Turkey through a JV. The company is in talks with Caliak of Turkey to set up a 10 million TPA grassroot refinery with an investment of $2 billion and establish retail business. IOC is also weighing the possibility of entering Indonesia.

IOC has also started exploring the overseas markets for increasing its scope of operations. Its interests include downstream activities in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman, and Nepal; interest in the lubes business in Maldives, Dubai, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc; among others. Weakness:-the company is the market leader in the industry, but still it had many weakness. The list is given below. The major weakness for the company is the R&D. The company starts working on it. The petrochemical product development technology is another weakness for the company. The technological drawback, as compared to some major foreign player is another weakness for the company.

6. PEST Analysis Economic environment:

The gradual reduction of tariff protection has ensured that prices of most goods in countries like India are closer to global levels or even much lower. The lower prices are much more extensive in the services sector, which accounted for 52.4% of the Indian economy in 200405.The use of GDP based on purchasing power parity in the calculation of oil intensity is also validated by the fact that the figures on oil consumption are measured in terms of volumes of input (million tons of oil equivalent-mtoe) while the GDP estimated on the market exchange rate gives only the value of output and not the actual volumes. It is only the GDP estimated on a purchasing power parity basis which gives some indicator so the volume of output which should form the basis of cross country comparisons of output and estimation of oil intensity therein. However, though the oil intensity in India is comparatively much lower than in most other developed and developing countries the negative impact of high oil prices on the economy is accentuated by the distorted pattern of oil consumption in India.

Social Cultural Environment

Social cultural variation in the Indian context, is very important for any company to work in it. The India is basically can be divided into four major regions on the basis of language ,

demography and also the income states. These are the south, north, east and west. The IOCL as a company also operates differently in different regions and also use different languages to attract people towards them. This is also, a reason for which the company have three refineries in the south region out of eleven in total. And that also because of the merger with MRPL a local regional company.

atural Environment
The company IOCL is very much concern about the environmental polices of it and also very strictly follow every small norms of it. The mission of the company is very clear; To develop techno-economically viable and environment-friendly products. All because of it that the company wins SCOPE Meritorious Awards for Environmental Excellence & Sustainable
Development and Good Corporate Governance.

Technological Environment
In today's dynamic business environment, innovation through a sustained process of Research & Development (R&D) is the only cutting edge tool for organisations to thrive. Indian Oil has, till date, invested close to Rs. 1,000 crore in setting up world-class facilities at its R&D Centre and it plans to invest about Rs. 500 crore during the period 2007-12 to maintain its leadership in downstream R&D activities in the hydrocarbon sector. This the reason , thats why IOCL have the India's first experimental H-CNG (Hydrogen-Compressed Natural Gas) dispensing unit at the R&D Centre campus at Faridabad and has been in the forefront of technology development for Bio-diesel production from various edible and non-edible oils and its application in vehicles. Pioneering studies by India Oils R&D Centre established that Bio-diesel produced from Jatropha seeds were at par with that produced from vegetable oils.

Political Legal Environment

The political and legal environment for the whole oil industry is very essential. In India the entire oil industry is been governed by OIL Ministry and OIDB a Govt body. This two institutes are responsible for all the decision related to the price, quality specification etc. Beside this the international politics also affect this international commodity Oil a lot and also its companies. Any company operated in India had to work according to the norms and on the prices specified earlier by Govt bodies.

7. Evidence of Strategic formulation by IOCL

7(A) Porters Generic Strategies Overall Cost Leadership:

As per the Government regulations, all the player in downstream petroleum sector have to maintain same prices, infact subsidize the mail commodities like Motor spirit, High speed diesel, kerosene and LPG.For the subsidized products, Government allots Oil bonds to Oil PSUs in order to partially compensate for the under-recoveries and to some extent by upstream Oil Companies (ONGC,OIL).In this way IOCL has overall cost leadership vis-vis private players. Differentiation:

IndianOil is the pioneer in launching state-of-the-art petrol stations with digital dispensers, modern canopies, standardized signage and efficient lighting systems way back in the mid1990s. The new retail-branding template introduced by Indian Oil set in motion a revolution in the petroleum retail business in the country. Following are the evidence of differentiation by IOCL. Xtra Care IndianOil's XTRAcare E branded full service petrol stations is a result of a series of processes in retail design, product and service up gradation, capability training, automation, loyalty programs, retail site management techniques all benchmarked to global standards. Today XTRAcare petrol stations are synonymous in India with world-class petroleum retailing. While the industry standard is to take samples on a quarterly basis, Indian Oil has moved several steps ahead by introducing fortnightly random sampling with specific importance given to RON (Research Octane Number) sampling which is truly the definitive test for quality and quantity. The surveillance audits by BV are being done on a more comprehensive basis. The scale and spread of XTRAcare pumps is also an industry record. Another vital differentiator in the Indian Oil XTRAcare is the importance given to the frontline customer attendants. They are trained at three levels of competencies-customer service, personal hygiene/grooming and customer complaint redressals. XTRAcare dealers also undergo extensive training on 'Retail Site Business Management.

Kisan Seva Kendra Kisan Seva Kendra is a unique award-winning retail outlet model pioneered by IndianOil to cater to the needs of the customers' in the rural segment. Today IndianOil's KSKs have merged as a dominant player in the rural markets, riding on the rapid growth of upcoming second and third tier roads in the rural areas. The KSKs come with a fresh perspective enabling dealers to tap the huge demand driven in by consumers there. Swagat The Swagat retail network are large format sites designed exclusively to cater to travelers on the highways. With spacious parking lots, dhabas, eateries, retail stores and restroom, theSwagat outlets provide customized services to owners of both light motor vehicles as well as heavy motor vehicles. Focus

IOCL plans to prune its retail outlets in the current year(2009),owing to the fact that it plans to improve the efficiency of current 15000 outlets.Its plans to improve by its differentiating factors like Xtra care,swagat and seva Kendra. IOCL to use its Indian surplus funds to expand operations in Sri Lanka ,where it is operating as Lanka IOC Plc.,.It is planning to establish 300 retail outlets which require investment to the tune of 6 billion Sri lankan rupess ( INR 260 crore),each outlet requiring about Srilankan rupee 2 Crore.Srilankan market has a demand of 3.5 MTPA with current capacity of 2.2 MTPA 7(B) Strategic Alliances Product or Service Alliance

Focus is on having captive oil blocks by entering into consortium with foreign players and Oil India Limited to acquire foreign Oil blocks,so as to ensure energy security of India. IOCL signs Memorondum of Understanding with Adani Energy for City Gas Distribution in select districts of Haryana,Punjab ,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Promotional Alliance

IOCL has formed a promotional alliance with kisan seva Kendras for promotion in rural areas.IOCL presents sports scholarship awards to nurture talented young sportspersons across all the streams.IndianOil has also set up the IndianOil Foundation (IOF) as a non-profit trust to protect, preserve and promote national heritage monuments. IOCL provides merit-cum-means scholarships to bright students selected on 'merit-cummeans' basis. For each academic year, 450 scholarships covering the first year students of 10+ / ITI, Engineering, MBBS and MBA Logistics Alliance

IOCL has formed a logistics alliance with Mundra Port for strategic storage of Crude Oil.Indian Oil Tanking Ltd formed as an alliance between Indian Oil and Oil tanking US for storage of Crude Oil and products. Pricing Collaboration

IOCL collaborates with other PSU players for exchange of surplus products ,like , IOCL might offer Gasoline or Naptha at Guwhati to HPCL inexchange of the same products at Vizag.(Usually termed as Hospitality in common Oil Industry parlance)

Part B- Competitive Scenario

Market Structure:-The Indian petroleum industry can be traced back to 19th century when petroleum was discovered in Assam. In starting, industry open for international players and global oil majors such as Caltex,Esso& Burmah-shell were operating in country but after oil crisis of 1970 the government nationalized the Indian divisions of the international company and also nationalized refining, marketing sector. government established Oil Coordination Committee for regulatory control on production, import, distribution & pricing& they are using APM(administered price mechanism) due to government hold on oil companys there is no private player &market is oligopoly market where 2-3 government under taking company are major player.Major player are IOC,BPCL& HPCL are dominating players in downstream sector. In upstream ONGC &OIL claiming 84% shear of the total market. After liberalization in 1990 government change its policy& policy maker realized that APM no longer work as it had in the past so they opened this sector. Thus the government initiated the deregulation process in 1995 wherein the APM was replaced with market determined pricing

mechanism. Due to this change some private player come in this industry like Reliance Petroleum Limited, Essaroil etc.Indian government provide oil bond to oil companys to over come losses thats why oil companys are protected that is evident by recent oil price hike.

The trend in the deregulated markets that is being followed by the players is to move towards integration of refining and marketing activities on a greater scale. Moreover, the oil PSUs are also venturing into oil exploration and production activities. Bearing testimony to this are the entries of downstream players like Reliance, IOC and Essar Oil into the oil exploration field, while the exploration major ONGC is moving into refining operations, albeit in a small way in the form of commissioning a 0.1 MT mini refinery in Andhra Pradesh. However, by establishing a 71.59% stake in MRPL, the company has signaled its entry into this sector in a big way. A presence in all the activities will help the players to hedge to a certain extent any volatility in the raw material prices. Moreover, a presence in the marketing activities will help the company to take benefit of the improved marketing margins that are expected in the post APM period. In the long-term, the industry is likely to witness the global trend of formation of integrated oil companies, having interest in exploration, refining, retail marketing and petrochemicals business. Some of the major players in this industry have been discussed in brief below. Oil advertising : At present, there are four PSUs namely, IOC, HPC, BPC and IBP (subsidiary of IOC) marketing oil products in the country. In addition, certain private players like Reliance, Essar and Shell have also in marketing rights for transportation fuels. Their marketing presence today, however, is not significant and is limited to about 1370 outlets out of total retail outlet strength of about 29,380 . Some additional players like ONGC, who have also been granted marketing rights for transportation fuels, are in the process of setting up retail outlets to integrate across the entire hydrocarbon value chain. The company wise market share in sales is tabled below: It is evident that the share of the private sector in meeting total consumption of refined petroleum products presently stands at around 15%. This proportion is however, expected to grow significantly in the coming years

Retail Market Share Company IOC Group BPCL HPCL Other PSUs Total PSUs Private Total Figures as on 1st Nov 2005 Total number of retail outlets 29380 Market Share (%) 46.2 18.6 16.5 2.2 83.5 16.5 100

Brief Profile of other players

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) HPCL is a Fortune 500 company, with an annual turnover of over Rs 1,03,837 Crores ($ 25,142 Millions) during FY 2007-08, 16% Refining & Marketing share in India and a strong market infrastructure. Corresponding figures for FY 2006-07 are: Rs 91,448 crores ($20,892Million).

The Corporation operates 2 major refineries producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels & specialties, one in Mumbai (West Coast) of 5.5 MMTPA capacity and the other inVishakapatnam, (East Coast) with a capacity of 7.5 MMTPA. HPCL holds an equity stake of 16.95% in Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited, a state-of-the-art refinery at Mangalore with a capacity of 9 MMTPA. In addition, HPCL is progressing towards setting up of a refinery in the state of Punjab in the joint sector.

HPCL also owns and operates the largest Lube Refinery in the country producing Lube Base Oils of international standards. With a capacity of 335 TMT. This Lube Refinery accounts for over 40% of the India's total Lube Base Oil production.

The vast marketing network of the Corporation consists of Zonal offices in major cities and over 91 Regional offices facilitated by a Supply & Distribution infrastructure comprising Terminals, Aviation Service Stations, LPG Bottling Plants, and Inland Relay Depots & Retail Outlets. The Corporation over the years has moved from strength to strength on all fronts. The refining capacity steadily increased from 5.5 million tonnes in 1984/85 to 13.70 million metric tonnes (MMT) presently. On the financial front, the turnover grew from Rs. 2687 crores in 1984-85 to an impressive Rs 1,03,837 Crores in FY 2007-08. Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) BPCL was incorporated in 1952 when the Government entered into a joint venture with Burma Oil and Shell Petroleum. Subsequently, the company was nationalized by way of acquiring a 100% equity stake in 1976, but subsequently the Government has let go a part of its holding to financial institutions, mutual funds, etc. Today, BPCL is the second largest refining and marketing company in India, and has now three refineries, including KRL and NRL, and another target for disinvestment, that has been stuck up in the middle of the process along with HPCL. Some of the key features of BPCL are

BPCL is the second largest refining and marketing company in India. The company along with its subsidiaries owns 15% of the refining capacity and 9% of the product pipelines. It has a 19% market share in the country in terms of sales, and a retail market share of 32.2% in MS, and 24% in HSD.

The company has the third largest retail outlet and LPG distributor network in the country.

The company has also adopted innovative marketing strategies such as introducing value added highway retailing among others, in order to improve its retail sales.

In line with the other oil refining and marketing companies Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) also ended up in red for the quarter ended Dec 05. Governments decision not to revise petrol and diesel prices in line with rising crude prices internationally had an adverse impact as the company recorded net losses for a third consecutive quarter. Companys operating margins turned negative and the company made operating losses. Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) - O GC

Set up as a joint venture between HPCL and the Aditya Birla group in 1988 as a standalone refinery, MRPL is now a subsidiary of ONGC, which has a 71% holding in it, and is also planning to buy out the balance HPCL stake. ONGC is expanding the scope of its operations to become an integrated player. The acquisition of MRPL was in order to facilitate its entry in the downstream industry. Apart from MRPL, ONGC is also having a mini plant, with a capacity of 0.13 lakh tonnes. Moreover, the company also is working on plans to enter the marketing and retailing businesses. The company hopes to put in place a retail network of 1700 outlets in place over the next 3-4 years. The company is anticipated to take advantage of its real estate throughout the country for this purpose. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Reliance Petroleum was incorporated in 1991as Reliance Refineries, but changed its name to the former in 1993, and has since merged with its parent company RIL. Its refinery is a standalone, and is at Jamnagar, on the countrys western coast. The refinery was commissioned in July 1999, and it commenced its operations in 2000-01. It is Indias largest standalone refinery, and constitutes 24% of the countrys refining capacity. Additionally, the Jamnagar refinery is also the worlds fifth largest refinery at a single place. RIL also owns 23% of the product pipelines in the country. RIL is a private integrated player in India, and has established a retail network of more than 1300 units. Earlier, RIL had marketing agreements with the oil PSUs till March 2004 to market about 14 million tonnes of its petroleum products. Now RIL has plans to set up about 4300 more outlets throughout the country subsequently. Its foray into marketing is expected to improve its marketing margins, and complete its attempt at downstream integration. Reliance Industries (RIL), the largest private Sector Company in India came out with disappointing results for the quarter ended Dec 05. The company posted just 2% rise in revenues and a 15% fall in reported PAT after the operating margins slipped 210 basis points. For the quarter ended Dec 05, RILs sales moved up just 2% to Rs. 18168 crore. The operating margins slipped by 210 basis points to 16.4%, which pulled the operating profits down by 10% to Rs. 2976 crore. Small reductions in interest, depreciation and tax provisions could not bring any respite for the company. The refining margins continued to suffer as the company recorded a 46% plunge in the PBIT from refining

Competitive Force Analysis

Threat of Intense segment rivalry - is witnessed in the holistic service offered by the retail outlet majors (IOCL,HPCL ,BPCL) .If IOCL has Swagat outlets ,HPCL and BPCL has Club HP and Pure for Sure outlets.It is noted that most of these outlets have same facilities like Quality verification checks,Truck driver amenities etc,leading to intense segment

rivalry.However IOCL has the edge in terms of vast refinining and distribution network ,hence is the market leader.

Threat of new entrants In the current Indian scenario,entry and exit barriers are high and profit potential is high ,but firms face more risk because poorer-performing firms stay in and fight it out.Like,IBP was facing bleak prospects till the time Indian Oil purchased it with a premium of over sixty percent.Till the recent crude oil spike,Reliance Retail petroleum,Essar Oil and Shell gave a head-on clash (frontal attack in select locations) with Oil PSUs.Adding to it newer plants come with better crude handling capacities(like better Nelsons index) and therefore refinery margins are good,thus reflected in the net margins. Threat of Substitute Products is from cleaner and efficient fuels like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG),where it was implemented on a war-footing in Delhi to control emissions.Also the increased awareness on Jatropha and Pongamia ,Central Governments encouragement in the form of Bio-fuel purchase policy for 5% bio-fuel blended Diesel fuel. Electric car Reva also poses a challenge to the existing players.

Threat of buyers growing bargaining power - Consumer is always the king is apt in the case of petroleum products in India.Consumers interest are protected by the Government by not raising the fuel prices beyond a limit and indirectly consumer is

exercising his bargaining power.Also all the Oil PSUs are offered varied services to the consumer including intangible ones like frequent quality checks and tangible ones like amenities ,ATM ,car care etc ,which was not even a moot concept in the past.Hence the buyers bargaining power has increased.

Threat of Suppliers growing bargaining power Petroleum is synonomus with OPECcartel.Big-wigs like Exxon-Mobil,Total,Occidental Petroleum ,IOCL,BPCL are not shielded from the vagaries of OPEC. Though OPEC claims that its the tax structure in the respective countries which makes petroleum products expensive, crude oil price varies in NYMEX or in UK or in Singapore in accordance with production levels of OPEC.Today due to Global meltdown, Crude Oil prices are declining but OPEC has already initiated significant production cuts whose effect might be felt in the forthcoming months.

A report by:

Guide: Prof. Neena Sondhi

Abhimanyu Kumar Singh Deeptodip Sen Yoganand Mamilapalli Sudhanshu Kumar

RGIPT,MBA 2008-2010