The retail space has now become the key focus of an urban forecourt, with petrol and diesel almost relegated to a secondary position.

A look over the possible buyers of Statoil's Irish forecourt estate shows that retail now rules the roost.

Symbol operator Musgrave and British retail giant Tesco are both running the rule over the business, which could be worth about 200m.

Statoil has 263 stations in Ireland, almost 70 of which are company owned. With its Fareplay offering, Statoil was at the forefront of developing additional retail elements on Irish forecourts. Indeed, some believe the now ubiquitous breakfast roll can be traced back to the arrival of the state-owned Norwegian firm.

Tesco has so far failed to attack the convenience market in the Republic and sees Statoil as a perfect foundation on which to build a new chain of small stores. Executives at Musgrave, which owns SuperValu and Centra, are presumably terrified at the prospect of Tesco muscling in on the convenience market, and are probably making a defensive play. The move is an odd one for Musgrave, which typically prefers to franchise its operation rather than own stores directly, but needs must with Tesco's barbarians at the gate.

Tesco would be happy to run the petrol arm of Statoil . . . it is a major petrol retailer in the UK and already has a few forecourts in the Republic . . .

while Musgrave is likely to team up with a partner for any bid.