India: Essar Oil eyes 4,300 gas stations in the next 18 months

India’s second largest private oil refiner Essar Oil plans to expand its retail fuel network by nearly doubling its 2,225 petrol stations to 4,300 in the next 18 months, reported India Infoline News Service.

The expansion plans are on franchise model and call for an approximately Rs 2,500 crore-worth of investment by gas station owners.

Essar Oil’s chief executive officer (CEO) retail Madhur Taneja added that the company saw a volume sales increase from 700,000 kilolitres in 2014-2015 to 1.67 million kilolitres in 2015-2016.

The oil company, which has a pan-India network except for Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, expects to grow more than 100 percent this year and exceeds the industry growth of 7-7.5 per cent.