At present, these are imported by the State Trading Corporation in Mauritius and distributed by the four major oil companies - Shell, Caltex, Esso and Total. The prices of liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, gas oil and kerosene are controlled by the government. For other end-uses of these products and for items like jet fuel, fuel oil, lubes and bitumen, the oil companies are free to fix prices.

IOC will install tankage and auxiliary facilities at the Mer Rouge terminal and 25 service stations in a three phase programme. These will also include outlets for the high volume consumer. Aviation infrastructure has been planned in the country's SSR international airport.

To elaborate, the Mer Rougeterminal will house eight tanks with a total capacity of 24,000 tonnes, products receiving pipelines, tank truck loading facilities as well as provisions for fire safety and bunkering. As for the retail network, 15 outlets have been proposed in the first phase ending December 2000 of which eight will be company-owned and the balance taken up by dealers.

Five more outlets have been earmarked individually in the second and third phases (ending December 2001 and 2002 respectively) and their ownership will be equally divided between IOC and the dealers concerned. The aviation facilities at SSR international airport will consist of two tanks with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes and two refuellers of 45 kilolitres each. Sources say that IOC will welcome any Mauritian partner willing to invest in the project. Preliminary estimates indicate that the project is viable both technically and economically with a net return of 15.3 per cent on capital employed and a pay back of four years.

The Fortune 500 company is alsoconfident of garnering a 20 per cent market share over three years and hopes to end the first year with a ten per cent share. The retail service stations planned will be of modern design with facilities to cater to a large number of vehicles.

As part of its long term plans in Mauritius, IOC has proposed setting up of a lube blending plant which will be the first of its kind in the country. Also on the card is a bottling plant for LPG as well as distribution of the fuel.

A pre-feasibility study has been carried out for setting up a pipeline for transportation of jet-fuel to the SSR international airport. IOC has also planned to develop Mahebourg as a full fledged terminal for the south which will reduce road congestion, improve security of supplies and solve logistic problems of distribution especially for the south and east. This project is to be carried out in conjunction with development in the area.

Firm ups market share
IOC has improved its domestic market share in April-January 2000 to54.6 per cent from 54.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year. Naphtha, LPG and natural gas liquid have shown an appreciable rise to 65.5 per cent from 60.9 per cent while retail sales of motor spirit are up to 34.8 per cent from 34.4 per cent. There has been a marginal fall in the overall market shares of kerosene, diesel and aviation turbine fuel to 48.9 per cent from 49 per cent though diesel individually has increased its market share to 40.5 per cent from 40.2 per cent.