With pricing of petrol and diesel having been completely freed from Government control, it is probably the right time for Shell India, which has licence for about 2,000 fuel stations, to expand business, a company official said on Thursday.
Shell had set up its first fuel station in India in November, 2004 in Bangalore. “We started off with fairly rapid advancement and expansion of our network across the six states; and you are aware that the Govt of India in response to the international hardening of prices started paying subsidies to the Government companies. “So, that subsidy was really not available to private companies, so that’s one of the reasons why we had to slow down our expansion.”