Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP have formed a new fuel retail joint venture which will include RIL's ATF business. RIL will hold 51 percent and British Petroleum 49 percent in this new fuel retail joint venture. The joint venture will build on RIL's current fuel network of about 1,400 sites. Over the next five years, the JV will set up 5,500 sites.

CNBC-TV18 spoke to Bob Dudley, Group CEO of BP, who shared his views on the new joint venture.

"There are regulatory approvals that have to happen. I think the closing of this might happen in the early 2020 rather than by the end of 2019 but that is normal, that would actually be normal in most countries around the world," Dudley said.

The senior BP official has pointed out that Reliance has 1,400 stations which is just over 14 percent of the market share. "So, there are no real impediments here, there is encouragement for competition that will happen and all these formats will change. We will bring in the digital world, will make sure the fuel is available across the country. Then there is the possible idea to take the fuel straight to the consumer so that they do not have to spend the time going and getting a tank of diesel or petrol themselves. So, all kinds of things will happen and digital will be a big enabler in this," he noted.

On electric vehicle ecosystem he said, "We are even thinking about advanced mobility. Eventually electric charging of vehicles will happen, and the perfect place to do that is with fuel sales. We are doing that, we are combining that with ultrafast charging in the UK so consumers can come and buy liquid fuel, they can charge their cars and then retailing as well. And the speed of being able to make sure through the Jio system that all the stock levels are there on time, following customer patterns. It is really exciting. India is encouraging fast-charging vehicles as well. It will come in its own time, we will take the experience that we have in other countries with Reliance and that is clearly where we will go. It is not going to be the fastest growing part of it until a number of years down the road."

Disclosure:

Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

First Published:Aug 6, 2019 10:10 PM IST