In this interview with ET Now, P Raghavendran, President-Refinery of RIL talks about the demand for petroluem products and growth. Edited excerpts:
What is your outlook on demand for petroleum products in India?
We are very bullish on demand in India. We believe that India growth story is yet to play itself out in terms of demand for petroleum products. So demand for diesel driven by transportation for agriculture and industrial transportation of goods is bound to grow.
Similarly, as disposable income rises, especially in rural areas, there is a growth in gasoline demand. The high demand growth rates we have seen in gasoline – close to 10 per cent – is expected to continue for some more time.
How are you looking at things from export perspective? Is the demand in the same range as it was, say six months ago or are you seeing global demand also increasing?
The demand is growing only in some parts of the world, especially in the developing part of the world. China growth is still continuing at a lower level, India is growing. Africa and many parts of the developing world are continuing to grow and they provide the growth impulses for the sector.
As far as we are concerned, we look at all the markets, whether India or outside India, whichever gives us best margins.
With the kind of growth outlook that you are looking, are you confident of maintaining the same level of GRMs that you have in last three to four quarters?
We are trying to optimise GRM to the extent that we can. Demand and supply is a very significant component of it. We will try to optimise our margins within the play that is available.
How are your retail outlets panning out, how would it go to the optimal level in FY17?
Right now we are focussed on commissioning all our outlets and we are nearing the end of that. Most of our outlets have been commissioned and our next phase is to try to build volumes and build new outlets so that our network is complete. DJ Moore Authentic Jersey