MUMBAI, March 20 (Reuters) – Indian Oil Corp (IOC.BO) and the Indian unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) are front runners for buying a 50 percent stake in Reliance Industries’ (RELI.BO) retail fuel business, the Economic Times said on Friday.
Citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, the newspaper said state-run refiners Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL.BO) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL.BO) were also invited by Reliance to bid.
“We are looking at the proposal and will take a call after the due diligence is done,” the paper quoted Sarthak Behuria, chairman of state-run Indian Oil Corp, as saying.
A spokesman for Shell told the paper the company does not comment on speculation.
Reliance, India’s largest private refiner, has been looking at ways to revive its retail fuel pumps that were shut when world oil prices rose last year making it difficult to compete with state refiners that sold fuel at government-set low prices.
“We want to look at options of a collaboration with existing market players,” P.M.S. Prasad, the company’s chief executive for its oil and gas operations, told the paper.
Reliance has invested nearly $1.4 billion on the fuel retailing business and has a network of 1,432 petrol pumps across the country, the paper said.
A spokesman for Reliance reached by Reuters said he would not comment on the report.
Earlier this month, the Business Standard had reported that Reliance was in talks with Hindustan Petroleum to lease out its shuttered fuel pumps. [ID:nDEL400277] (Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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