New Delhi: Royal Dutch / Shell has opened its first petrol station in India in Bangalore. According to Vikram Mehta, chairman, Shell India, the company has a license to set up 2,000 outlets across the country.

He said Shell's retail network would be set up in phases and the first stage would involve an expenditure of Rs250 crore. The company plans to import liquefied natural gas for its proposed 5-million metric tpa LNG import terminal at Hazira in western India in the first quarter of 2005. The Hazira terminal would have a capacity to import 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas every year. The regassified LNG would be sold to major power producers, fertiliser and ceramics industries located along the coast of the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra that are easily accessible from Shell's LNG import terminal.

Since India's oil sector was deregulated in April 2002, Shell obtained a license to build 2,000 oil gasoline stations in the country. All those wanting to enter the country's $15-billion per annum oil retail market have had to meet government requirements, including a minimum Rs20-billion rupee ($435 million) investment in the country's petroleum sector.

Till now, state-run oil companies had a near monopoly in India's oil retail business, expanding at more than five per cent a year. Reliance Energy Ltd., India' largest private oil refiner, began retailing petrol and diesel earlier this year.

Shell, will be the first multinational to begin fuel retailing in India after the opening up of the sector.