Total is already working on two major projects -- one with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for liquefied petroleum gas and the other as a three way joint venture with the Tata Electric Companies and Gas Authority of India for liquefied natural gas.

The company has now indicated that it will enter into a series of tieups for expanding its presence further in key petro-related areas. These would be in the form of joint ventures with PSUs and private players for which strategies are already being worked out.

Total has also listed three options to the petroleum ministry for its retail plan. The first is to pick up a stake in one of the stand-alone refining companies - Madras Refineries, Cochin Refineries or Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals - and then consider building a regional marketing base.The second, or medium term, option is to forge a joint venture with either BPCL or HPCL for new areas of operations. The company has already maintained that it will think twice before investing in a greenfield refinery as creation of additional capacity at this stage may not make sense.

The last would be to bid for government stakes in HPCL or BPCL if there is any decision to have them privatised by the time the oil sector is completely deregulated in 2002. This would be the best bet as both companies have a phenomenal retail outlet network which has caught the attention of other players like Reliance and Shell-Aramco.