New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- Of India's 1.03 lakh petrol pumps, nearly 72% are in the open category, while the remainder are allocated across various reserved and special categories, according to official data. As of April 1, 2026, India had 103,023 retail fuel outlets, of which 93,503, or 90.76%, were operated by public sector oil companies and 9,520, or 9.24%, by private companies, according to data compiled by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the oil ministry's data agency. The open category also includes retail outlets operated by private oil companies. Among the reserved categories, the Scheduled Caste (SC) category has the largest share, with 10,812 outlets, followed by the Other Backward Classes (OBC) with 8,250 and Scheduled Tribes (ST) with 5,035. The allocation also includes 1,417 outlets, or 1.4% of the total, for persons with disabilities and 771, or 0.7%, under the defence category. Another 341 outlets, or 0.3%, have been allocated to unemployed graduates; 269, or 0.3%, to freedom fighters; 213, or 0.2%, to paramilitary personnel; and 101, or 0.1%, to outstanding sportspersons. Another 1,715 outlets, or 1.7%, fall under the "others" category. This includes dealerships given to social workers, on compassionate grounds or under the discretionary quota, as well as two- and three-wheeler outlets, pumps allocated under Operation Vijay and company-owned, company-operated (COCO) outlets. Private oil companies had no retail outlets until April 2003. Following the dismantling of the petroleum sector's administered pricing mechanism (APM) from April 1, 2002, private companies began entering the fuel retail market. By April 2004, they had 27 outlets, according to PPAC data. The number of private outlets rose steadily to 2,910 by April 2011, before declining marginally to 2,882 by April 2014....