iwon.com/Dow Jones Newswires: Shell Resumes Gasoline, Diesel Retail Operations In India – Executive: “The Indian unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) has resumed gasoline and diesel retail operations in the country after a gap of nearly three decades.” (ShellNews.net) 3 Dec 04

Friday December 3, 2004

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- The Indian unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) has resumed gasoline and diesel retail operations in the country after a gap of nearly three decades.

"We have commissioned our first outlet in Bangalore," said Shell India Chairman Vikram Mehta. "We have a license to set up 2,000 outlets."

Shell was among those global majors that wound up retailing operations in the 1970s after the federal government put oil marketing under state control. After the deregulation of the industry in 2002, Shell was among the private companies to get retailing licenses.

Mehta said the company will invest INR2.50 billion in the first phase of its retailing operations in India, where the Anglo-Dutch major also owns a liquefied natural gas terminal.   

The LNG project in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which is being built at a cost of $600 million, is likely to handle its first shipment in the "first quarter" of 2005, said Mehta.

He added that Shell India will source LNG from Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, Oman and Nigeria, where Shell Group companies own stakes in gas projects.

Shell India is looking to sell gas to major power producers, fertilizer and ceramic industries located along the western coast of Gujarat and Maharashtra states. Industries located in these two states are easily accessible from Shell's LNG import terminal.

-By Himendra Kumar, Dow Jones Newswires; +91-11-2307-4020; djn.in@dowjones.com

-Edited by Hilary McCully and Tracy Gan