Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and British multinational oil and gas company, BP, have formed a new fuel retail joint venture. The new joint venture will also include RIL's aviation turbine fuel (ATF) business which currently operates at over 30 airports across India. RIL will hold 51 percent and BP will hold 49 percent in the new JV.

The new joint venture will build on RIL’s current fuel network of 1,400 sites. Currently, RIL has licence to open 5,500 fuel retail outlets and BP has licence to open 3500 fuel retail outlets.

A joint release to the exchanges states that the final agreements will be reached during 2019 and the transaction will be complete in the first half of 2020, subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries said, “We are delighted to expand our partnership with BP, one of the global leaders in the fuel-retailing sector. This partnership is a testimony to the strong ties between BP and Reliance. Our robust partnership in developing gas resources in India has now expanded to fuel retailing and aviation fuels. This transformative partnership will deepen our engagement with the consumers in further enhancing the world-class services across the country.”

Bob Dudley, Group Chief Executive of BP said, “India is set to be the world’s largest growth market for energy by the mid-2020s. BP is already a large investor here and we see further attractive, strategic opportunities to support this growth. We are working closely with Reliance to develop India’s gas resources, helping meet the country’s demand for that key fuel. Together we will work to provide consumers across India the high-quality fuels, convenience retail and services they need, continuing to drive modernisation and mobility solutions across the country.”

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First Published:Aug 6, 2019 5:45 PM IST