The combined share of private players-Reliance BP, Shell and Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy-has shrunk by 50 80% in the fuel retail market year-on-year and even the taxes imposed in July on exports or the official mandate to sell more in the domestic market hasn't helped. In July, all three private operators held a 2.3% share of the domestic retail market for diesel compared to 2.9% in June and 10.6% in July 2021, according to data obtained from oil companies. Their share of petrol fell to 5% in July from 5.6% in June this year and 9.8% in July last year. This resulted in increased sales and unwanted market share gains for state refiners, at a time when fuel prices were artificially static. In July, state-owned refiners had a combined share of 95% in petrol and 97.7% in diesel. A year ago, their share was 90.2% in petrol and 89.4% in diesel. The big shift in demand from private players to public companies caused great inconvenience to customers in some places during the summer, and added to the losses that state companies were already experiencing due to the retail price freeze. Bharat Petroleum and the state-owned retailers reported a loss of Rs 18,500 crore in the month of April-June. Private players blamed the price freeze for lower sales. Our sales were impacted in the last few months as the retail selling price of petrol and diesel did not keep pace with international benchmarks. In recent times, oil price and product cracks have come down, enabling us to regain market share, especially in the case of petrol where margins are now positive, Nayara Energy told ET.Reliance, Shell, anddidn't respond to requests for comment. The problem for state refiners is the strong fuel demand in the country. In July, petrol and diesel retail sales increased by 6.9% and 17.6%. Industrial customers switching to petrol pumps for cheaper fuel was a reason for the unusual rise in diesel retail sales. In many cases, oil companies encouraged the switch for fear of losing customers to rival retailers, industry executives said. In July, the price of diesel directly sold to industrial customers fell 54% from a year earlier. The decline was 44% in June. In July of 2021, direct diesel sales to bulk buyers comprised 13% of total diesel consumption in the country. The share fell to 5.5% in July of this year. Oil companies sell to industrial customers at a price that's lower than retail, but bulk supplies have been much more expensive than fuels available at pumps in the past few months. Private players' sales to bulk buyers fell by nearly 60% over the year in July, with their market share declining to 10.7% from 11.9% in July 2021. The government had imposed a windfall tax of 6 per litre on the export of petrol and 13 per litre on diesel at the beginning of July. It directed refiners to sell at least 30% of diesel and 50% of petrol in the domestic market. The tax on petrol exports was scrapped and the tax on diesel was reduced to Rs 11 on July 20. The tax on diesel has fallen to Rs 5 per liter this month. Private refiners are responsible for 80 - 85% of fuel exports from the country. They sell fuels to state-owned fuel retailers at international prices. Domestic sales for private refiners are also included in whatever they sell to state companies.