IOC bids for fuel marketing, retail rights in Myanmar
New Delhi   01-Apr-2016

State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has bid for rights to import, store and distribute petroleum products in Myanmar. “We have put in a bid to enter fuel marketing and retail business in Myanmar,” a senior company official said.

Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) last year invited companies to form a joint venture for import, storage, distribution and sale of all petroleum products except liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG). A separate tender for cooking gas LPG was floated. IOC had bid for that tender too, the official said. MPPE left the fuel distribution business when it was privatised in 2010, but is planning a re-entry into the fast-growing business sector that is marred by widespread dissatisfaction over service standards and fuel quality.

In 2010, MPPE transferred 216 filling stations to private companies across the country but it still runs 12 pumps which supply fuel to state-owned vehicles. It also owns four main fuel terminals and 24 sub-fuel terminals.

Around 70 private companies run the country’s 1163 petrol stations, but few have storage facilities or an import licence.