As on March 1, 2007, Essar Oil had 1,149 petrol bunks, few notches below RIL's 1,367 pumps, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in the Rajya Sabha.
"The government has granted authorisation to market transportation fuel to four companies - Reliance Industries, Essar Oil, Shell India and Reliance Petroleum Ltd," he said.
However, RPL has not set up any retail outlet to sell petrol and diesel in the country so far. Shell India has 32 outlets - 14 each in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, three in Andhra Pradesh and one in Maharashtra. Essar has the maximum number of 179 outlets in Gujarat, followed by 155 in Maharasthra and 151
in Uttar Pradesh.
Essar, which has permission to set up 1,700 petrol stations, has not set up any outlet in Chhatisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
RIL, which has authorisation to set up 5,849 petrol pumps, has maximum number of 236 outlets in Gujarat, followed by 144 in Maharasthra, 132 in Uttar Pradesh, 129 in Andhra Pradesh and 106 in Rajasthan. It has not set up any outlet in Pondicherry, Sikkim, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunchal Pradesh.
"The private companies have not been able to fulfill their obligation for setting up at least 5.6 per cent of their retail outlets in remote areas and at least 5.3 per cent in low service areas, due to certain reasons," Patel said.
"The position in this regard is monitored to ensure fulfillment of these obligations also," he said.
