Marketing

Marketing Organizations

The retail marketing of petroleum products in India is done by:

A. Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs):
1. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL),
2. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL),
3. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL),
4. Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL),
5. Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL),
6. Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL)

B. Private companies:
1. Reliance,
2. Essar
3. Shell.
 Retail Infrastructure

There are 320 Terminal/Depots,

 189 LPG Bottling Plants (as on 1/9/17),
 59595 Retail Outlets including private companies (as on 1/4/17),
 19136 LPG Distributorships (as on 1/9/17),
 6543 SKO/LDO Dealers (as on 1/4/17) in the country.
 Product Pricing

The pricing of petroleum products was brought under Administered

Price Mechanism (APM) effective July 1975 when the pricing of
petroleum products was shifted from import parity principles to
cost plus principles.
Under APM (1975 to 2002) various oil pool accounts were maintained
with the objective to
i) ensure stability in selling price;
ii) insulate consumers against international price fluctuations;
iii) subsidization of consumer price of certain products like kerosene
for public distribution and domestic LPG by cross subsidization
from other products like petrol, Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) etc.
and indigenous crude oil.
Effective 01.04.2002, the APM was dismantled and the Government
decided to provide subsidy on sale of PDS kerosene and domestic
LPG at specified flat rates under the Budget.
To administer these budgetary subsidies, the Government formulated a
‘PDS kerosene and domestic LPG subsidy scheme’ in 2002.
Under this scheme it was decided that these subsidies will be phased
out in 3-5 years.
Even though APM was dismantled effective 1.4.2002,
since 2004, the consumers of sensitive petroleum products viz. Petrol
(decontrolled w.e.f. 26.06.2010),
Diesel (decontrolled w.e.f.19.10.2014),
PDS kerosene and Domestic LPG were being insulated from the impact
of unprecedented high international oil prices by the Public Sector
Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) namely IOCL, HPCL & BPCL.
 Important processes & activities

Important processes in the marketing include Storage, Distribution &

Sales of petroleum products by OMCs namely Indian Oil
Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
The OMCs perform marketing activities through their vast network of
Terminals/Depots, LPG Bottling Plants, Retail Outlets, LPG
Distributorships and SKO/LDO Dealers across India.
Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO) is one of the sensitive petroleum products
distributed through Public Distribution System (PDS).
Allocation of PDS SKO is made by the Government of India to different
States / Union Territories (UTs) on a quarterly basis for distribution
under Public Distribution System (PDS) for cooking and lighting
only.
PDS Kerosene has been allocated to States / UTs based on historical
allocations.
Further distribution within the States / UTs through their PDS network
is the responsibility of the concerned States /UTs.
 Regulatory measures

Control Orders issued by the Government to prevent fuel adulteration,

under the Essential Commodities Act 1955, empowers the State
Governments to take action against those indulging in adulteration.
Moreover, Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) has also been
formulated to take action against RO Dealers / LPG Distributors for
established cases of irregularities / malpractices.
 Automation of Retail Outlets

In order to monitor the activities at Retail Outlets by adapting the latest

technological improvements, automation of Retail Outlets is being
implemented.
Retail Automation is the automation of all the operations and business
processes of a Retail Outlet.
This is achieved by capturing, collating and analyzing all the transactions
electronically.
The main objective of Retail Automation is Customer Relationship
Management.
Manual intervention is eliminated, and speed of transaction & operations is
increased, resulting in Quick Fill Experience.
The system provides transparency and control of all facets of Retail Outlet
operations and the database generated reinforces control and analysis
of the outlet performance.
The Retail Outlets where automation system is implemented runs on
concept of NANO i.e. ‘No Automation No Operation’
 Tamper proof locking system & GPS tracking of
Tank trucks

OMCs have introduced tamper proof tank truck locking systems to

prevent enroute adulteration by transporters.
In order to prevent adulteration during transportation, OMCs have
been directed to install GPS for complete monitoring of the
movement at all the company owned / dealer owned / contractor
owned tank trucks.
 MyLPG.in

In line with the Government’s Digital India campaign, the

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has unveiled a 24x7 web
based application mylpg.in to provide LPG consumers an
integrated solution for carrying out all services related to
supply of cooking gas from the comfort of their home.
This portal offers several services to LPG consumers across the
three Oil Marketing Companies – Indian Oil Corporation
Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited – and their
distributors, such as register for new connections, Book refill,
Track delivery status, Rate your distributor, Change your
distributors, Surrender your connection and give up LPG
subsidy etc.
The portal empowers the consumer by bringing complete LPG
related information in transparent manner.
 Tamper Evident Seal

OMCs, in their continuous pursuit to improve customer

satisfaction, has introduced new Tamper Evident Seal (TES),
for use on LPG Cylinders.
The seal has anti counterfeiting measure like Hologram hot
stamped on the seal and it contains message “LERC
GENUINE”. “LERC” is visible from one angle and
“GENUINE” is visible from another angle.
If attempts are made to tamper with the seal, it gets destroyed.
OMCs have introduced tamper-proof seal on pan India basis.