17-65, in other words all the people that are eligible to drive a car and use petrol. Both male and female audiences are important as a target audience and this can be clearly seen from the figures released by the Department of Transport and Regions. There are currently 38 million licence holders in the UK of which, 49% are male and 37% are female, the rest being provisional licence holders.CompetitionThe UK petrol market is one of the most competitive in the world. Competition in the sector has led to prices, which, before excise duty and VAT are added, are among the lowest in Europe. For example, the average industry price of unleaded petrol in 2000 was 80.2p/litre. When taxes and the cost of producing the fuel are excluded only around 5p/litre is left for the retailer and the oil company.All petrol retailers, including those without an upstream activity, have to obtain their petrol supplies at international prices. It has been suggested that integrated oil companies could sell petrol at below established retail market prices by offsetting subsequent losses against earnings from their other more profitable business activities.Also all the players in this market try to innovate as much as they can which means that a lot of money must be spent on Research & Development and on New Product Development.The main competitors for Shell are the following:BP: BP, formerly BP Amoco, is the world's #2 integrated oil company, behind Exxon Mobil. The company, which was formed in 1998 from the merger of British Petroleum and Amoco, has grown further by buying Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). BP has proved reserves of 15.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including large holdings in Alaska and the North Sea. It is the largest US oil and gas producer. Also a top refiner (3.2 million barrels of oil per day capacity) and petrochemicals and specialty chemicals manufacturer, it has expanded by buying motor-oil maker Burmah Castrol. BP operates 29,000 ...
