Jio-BP clocks 34% volume growth in petrol, diesel sales

New Delhi: Jio-BP, the fuel retailing joint venture of Reliance Industries and super major BP, clocked a 34 percent rise in petrol and diesel sales in the September quarter as the joint venture aggressively expands its retail network.

Jio-BP clocked 1.8 million sales of petrol and diesel in July-September, 34 per cent more than a year ago, according to an investor presentation made by the company after the second quarter earnings announcement.

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Also, helping the firm were good margins.

"So, if you look at the volume and the growth, petrol and diesel together, we have done about 1.8 million kilolitre. That is a 34 per cent growth. ATF, which is jet fuel, we have done about 157,000 kilolitres. This is definitely lower than last quarter but what is important to note is we are maintaining the share there," Srinivas Tuttagunta, COO - Refining & Marketing at Reliance Industries Limited, said on the investor call.

The ATF sales were lower than last year on account of a reduction in air traffic due to heightened checks that followed the Ahmedabad Air India crash, he said.

He said Jio-BP had a market share of 3.59 percent in petrol and 6.23 percent in diesel. Its ATF market share stood at 5.9 percent in the July-September quarter.

"Jio-BP continue to outperform market with innovative product and market offerings," the investor presentation said, touting its 'Active Technology' high-performance fuels that it claimed give extra mileage at no extra cost to the consumer.

Reliance BP Mobility Ltd, the 50:50 joint venture of Reliance and BP that operates under the Jio-BP brand, has already scaled up its auto fuel retailing network to 2,057. "Network, I think that is something which we are aggressively working on to increase our presence and footprint across the country and add more and more outlets," he said.

India's fuel retailing landscape is dominated by public sector firms. State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) control 90 per cent of the 99,281 petrol pumps in the country. IOC has 41,263 outlets, BPCL 6,446 and BHPCL 6,147.

Russia's Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy is the largest private retailer with 6,855 outlets. Shell has 347 outlets.

Alongside selling traditional auto fuels of petrol and diesel, Jio-BP is also aggressively pushing for new-age clean fuels. It already has 6,431 EV charging points and 107 compressed biogas (CBG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations.

"E-mobility wise on a low base, but we have grown at 32 per cent. CBG and CNG are an important focus for us, we have grown by 70 per cent," he said.

As many as 142 convenience stores have been set up at the fuel retail outlets to tap into non-fuel sales.

"So, these are the reasons for the strong performance of RBML, and we continue to work on this to improve further," he added.

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