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Winners and Losers of India’s Mutating Petroleum Policy
In the last 25 years, the Indian petroleum sector has gone through several structural changes. Each stage of these reforms has favoured private sector companies, signifying a loosening of government control on the sector that had been asserted through investing in public sector oil companies in the 1970s.
The Government of India had an active role in the functioning of the country’s petroleum sector from the 1970s to the 1990s—both upstream and downstream. Subsequently, economic reforms made structural changes in favour of private and foreign companies mandatory, and the sector has seen a gradual withdrawal of the government from it.
This article examines who the winners and losers have been because of structural changes in the petroleum sector in the last 25 years. It briefly discusses its historical context, and goes on to provide a summary of the phases of deregulation that unfolded. A discussion follows, alongside a company-wise examination of the physical and financial performance of public sector oil-refining and marketing companies in the last five years.
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