Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has once again set standards in the downstream petroleum market with enhanced market and mindshare. As one of the top Indian corporates in the Fortune ‘Global 500’ listing ranked at 88, IndianOil has proved its ability to uphold its leadership in the downstream petroleum sector. As a testimony of the trust that millions of customers bestow upon it, the Readers Digest ‘Trusted Brand Award 2013’ was given to the Corporation for the seventh consecutive year.
IndianOil was felicitated by IFR Asia with the ‘Indian Market Capital Deal of the Year’ Award. It also became the second largest player in the domestic petrochemical sector during the year with all-time high sales and exports of petrochemicals.
The Corporation maintained its position as the market leader for the year with domestic sales of 70 million metric tonnes of petroleum products. To keep pace with the high growth in the retail business, over 1,700 retail outlets, including over 750 KSKs, were commissioned during the year, raising the total number to over 23,993. It increased its market share in the LPG segment during the year, and new initiatives were launched, such as portability of LPG connection within and across companies and sale of 5-kg free-trade LPG cylinders through select ROs and Kirana stores.
A total of 84 lakh new LPG domestic connections were released during the year, thereby increasing IndianOil’s customer strength to nearly 818 lakhs. Further, 106 new LPG distributorships and 478 RGGLVs were commissioned in the year gone by.
To further its agenda on expansion and growth, IndianOil has made capital expenditure plans worth Rs. 56,200 crores in the 12th Plan period (2012-17). It has already spent Rs. 26,038.76 crores during the plan period till March 2014.
Research & Development
IndianOil’s R&D Centre has been consistently developing technologies to facilitate optimum utilization of the available resources to ensure energy sufficiency and energy independence. The Centre has developed a novel concept on integrated gasification for optimal Gasifier design which has recently been granted the US Patent. IndianOil is also actively focusing on fast track commercialization of indigenous technologies that will help maximize its output across the entire hydrocarbon value chain.
The Bio-Energy Research Centre has signed an agreement with Lanzatech to develop micro-algae technology which entails development of an acetate-to-lipid pathway and evaluation of its viability for CO2 gas fermentation technology.
During the year 130 lubricant formulations were developed and 48 product approvals from OEMs and Defence obtained. Research activities in 2013-14 have resulted in filing of 54 new patents, surpassing the previous year’s record and also obtained grant of 11 patents.
The year also witnessed significant breakthrough in the demonstration and commercialization of some of the indigenously developed refinery technologies. In the lubricant area, R&D further expanded the OEM approval base of SERVO lubricants with the development of future ready products. During the year, several new initiatives were also taken in the area of futuristic/alternative energy.