Ambani and Adani team up to use each other’s fuel pumps

[NEW DELHI] Billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have partnered to sell transportation fuels using their respective groups’ retail stations across India, bolstering their distribution network across the world’s third largest oil consumer.

Reliance Industries’s Jio-bp venture will set up petrol and diesel dispensers at compressed natural gas retail outlets of Adani Total Gas, according to a joint statement on Wednesday (Jun 25). Similarly, the Adani group and TotalEnergies JV will install CNG dispensing units at Jio-bp’s pumps. The agreement will apply to both existing and future outlets.

This is the second business collaboration between the billionaires’ groups, after Reliance bought a 26 per cent stake in a 500 MW power project of Adani.

Private firms such as Jio-bp, Shell India and Nayara Energy have struggled to expand fuel retail operations in the country where nearly 90 per cent of the more than 97,000 petrol and diesel outlets are run by state refiners. The government maintains a tight grip over pump prices through the companies it controls, particularly during periods of sharp spikes in global rates, to keep inflation in check.

In 2021, Jio-bp had unveiled plans to expand their fuel network to 5,550 stations in five years, but they have so far reached only 2,000 outlets. The partnership between Adani and Reliance may provide a fillip to the struggling plan. BLOOMBERG