British energy company BP will pay about Rs 7,000 crore for acquiring 49 percent stake in Reliance Industries fuel retailing network. Recently, the two companies announced a new joint venture to set up petrol pumps and retail aviation turbine fuel to airlines in India.
Reliance Industries’ existing 1,400 odd petrol pumps, as well as 31 aviation fuel stations, will be transferred to the new joint venture (JV) where BP will hold 49 percent equity stake. Reliance Industries will hold the balance 51 percent in the entity, which aims to expand the retail network to 5,500 petrol pumps in the next five years.
This is the third JV between Reliance Industries and BP since 2011. BP had in 2011 bought 30 percent stake in 21 oil and gas exploration and production blocks of Reliance Industries for USD 7.2 billion.
At that time, another 50:50 joint venture, India Gas Solutions, was set up for sourcing and marketing gas in India. The country currently has nearly 65,000 petrol pumps, with public sector retailers owning 58,174.