Indian Oil Company will automate its retail outlets in the country to serve its customers with delight, said its Chairman R.S. Butola on Monday.
Inaugurating the Lube Oil Base Stock (LOBS) facility at Tondiarpet, he said that IOC had about 19,000 retail outlets. In the first phase, the company would automate about 4,500 retail outlets that sell about 200 kilo litres of fuel every month and the second phase would cover retail outlets that sell about 100 kilo litres of fuel.
“So far, about 1,600 outlets have been automated and the rest are put on fast track. It costs about Rs.16 lakh to automate a bunk. At the outlet, the customers can get fuel, oil, petrol, diesel and other products. They would be assured of right quantity; it would put an end to malpractices by the petrol bunk owners.”
On the fully automated facility at Tondiarpet set up a cost of Rs.23.26 crore, he said it would largely cater to bulk volume customers. With a combined capacity of over 8,000 kl, it would handle a variety of lube base oil grades such as SN-70, SN-150, SN-500, SN-850 and BS-150.
According to company officials, the new facility has seven storage tanks of 1,150 kl capacity each. The LOBS facility would receive all grades of base oil from Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd's Manali Refinery through a dedicated pipeline. All pipeline operations are fully automated and monitored from a central control room that would ensure total reliability, utmost safety and zero spillage.
