State-run fuel retailer IndianOil Corporation (IOC) is not in favour of the government’s suggestion to merge the pipelines and aviation assets of all the three public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs).
IOC does not like the the government interfering in these matters since these are commercial decisions. A top official of the firm rues that the firm invested in these facilities over a period of time. There could be sharing for facilities to be built in future, but why should the government interfere?, the executive posed.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has held a couple of meetings on the issue, but a move to have separate company for pipelines has not been successful.
With 101 aviation fuel stations, IOC is said to be a near-monopolist, and wherever the other two companies did not have such stations, it charges exorbitantly, reports suggest.
IOC, in fact, found no partners for its Chennai-Trichy-Madurai pipeline. The OMC owns and operates a 683-km pipeline that was commissioned in 2005 on a common carrier pipeline principle, another executive of the firm is quoted as saying in a media.
Under the common carrier principle, which is currently applicable in natural gas pipelines, companies putting up infrastructure have to invite interest from those who want to book capacity in the pipeline.
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