The company will first launch the product in Saudi Arabia and it will be shortly followed by a launch in South Africa.

Says S K Jain, executive director, "We will supply the additive to our overseas partner who will sell the final product overseas."

The Indian Oil Company will get royalty income. Some of the countries to which Bharat Petroleum will sell its addictives are the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Nigeria among others.

In 2003 Bharat Petroleum decided to leverage its extensive cooking gas dealer network to earn higher non-core income by providing a marketing outlet for con petroleum products. Accordingly, it signed distribution deals with tea, rice and consumer durable companies for cooking gas dealers to distribute their products.

Recently Bharat Petroleum signed a similar deal with kitchen appliances company Maharaja Appliances Limited. As per the deal, the cooking gas dealers of Bharat Petroleum will soon start selling the Maharaja Whiteline branded consumer durables.

According to Jain, the retail prices of the products sold by the gas dealers are lower than the market price. "In addition the goods are delivered at the door step. The service is a good hit with IT professionals in cities like Bangalore."