Marketing norms for oil cos soon

the government is expected to make a statement on the new marketing norms in the oil sector soon. the guidelines, which were cleared by the cabinet last week, will lay down the details of how the new entrants have to set up their marketing network and will also include anti-poaching rules. the government will act as the regulator in the interim period till the bill on downstream regulation is cleared by parliament. petroleum ministry officails say with this the last hurdle in allowing new companies for marketing petro-products will be cleared. the companies that have already qualified for marketing petrol, diesel, lpg and other petro products directly through retail outlets include ongc, gail, cairn energy, the nagarjuna group, oil, reliance industries, mangalore refinery, etc. some of these companies have downstream refineries like reliance and mrpl and can sell auto fuel. but companies like ongc, gail and cairn energy which produce gas will now be entitled to directly sell these products to retail consumers directly. ongc and gail also produce lpg and may decide over time to evolve their own brand name and sell the gas directly to the consumer. as of now, most of the lpg is sold under bulk sale system. speaking to et, gail chairman proshanto banerjee said the first things that they would get into under their own brand name is lpg for domestic use and auto lpg. "we have a superior quality of gas which we plan to market under our brand name to the auto sector." this apart, these companies can also enter into hospitality arrangements with other refining companies (like the system that prevailed in ibp’s case), source the product and sell through their retail outlets. a third option is to import the products provided it makes economic sense under the given duty structure. these companies have already qualified for the marketing rights but setting up the infrastructure will involve huge investments and time.