M A I N   N E W S

Petrol pumps start drying up
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 8
In a direct fallout of the strike by oil officers’ association, over 50 per cent of the retail outlets of various state-run oil companies, especially the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Chemicals Limited (BPCL), ran dry in the region today even as panic-struck people took to hoarding of petrol and diesel, from wherever it was available.

The situation was worse in Chandigarh, Patiala, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur. JP Khanna, the chief of Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association, said almost 70 per cent of the pumps in these districts had gone dry by the evening. Serpentine queues of customers were seen outside filling stations across the region.

Seeing the huge rush and the limited stock, many petrol stations started rationing fuel supply and people were declined fuel for more than Rs 500 per vehicle.

“Most of the pumps within the city limits are running dry. The situation worsened post panic buying by customers and the demand shot up by over 50 per cent today. People are now visiting petrol pumps located outside the city limits to get their tanks filled,” Harjit Singh Atwal of Atwal Filling Station in Patiala said. Though diesel supply remained satisfactory on account of its lesser demand, petrol (both normal and its premium version) stock began drying up post afternoon today. LPG supply was also hit in several parts of Punjab.

Notably, most of the petrol pumps in Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir had declined to stock up fuel supply ahead of the oil officers’ strike as they apprehended a cut in prices. Meanwhile, the outlets owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) did brisk business in the region today in view of their employees not going on strike. Says Ashok Thapar, who runs a HPCL retail outlet in Moga: “I have sent a much higher indent to the oil company today. The running dry of IOC and BPCL pumps has proved a boon for us.”

Talks between govt, oil officers fail
ONGC to dismiss nearly 64 staffers
Bhagyashree Pande
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 8
The indefinite strike called by the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) entered its second day. There were reports that petrol pumps were running out of fuel, backlog of LPG cylinders was mounting and add to this was work at oil refineries of Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum coming to a virtual halt.

On day two, the talks between the OSOA union leaders, representing 14 state-run PSUs, and the government representatives at the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) office in Noida failed to produce any results as the leaders wanted all their demands of higher wages to be accepted immediately. The OSOA leaders also failed to turn up for talks late Wednesday night at the GAIL office in New Delhi and kept the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora and Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey waiting for hours. Pandey confirmed that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was going to dismiss nearly 64 officers. OSOA president, Amit Kumar, who was part of the talks, has accused the oil PSU managements of victimising officers.

Since the shortage of gas will have a severe impact on power generation facilities and working of fertiliser units, ONGC Chief RS Sharma has rushed to Mumbai to kick start gas supply from its units.

Fuelling operations of various airlines were also affected or delayed due to the strike. In Delhi, about 40 per cent of the petrol pumps owned by the IOC and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited went out of stocks, but those of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited were operating normally as the company is not part of the agitation. We have been managing the situation till now but there are supply constraints. If the strike continues we might see major dry outs from Friday onwards, IOC Chairman, Sarthak Behuria said.

The deliveries of LPG cylinders have also been delayed resulting in piling up of a backlog of demand. Due to the truckers strikes combined with oil officer’s strike, no loading of petroleum products is taking place resulting in severe shortages.

IOC’s seven refineries were producing only 40 per cent of their output with production being impacted at its key refineries of Panipat, Haldia and Mathura. Its Koyali refinery in Gujarat was producing only 25 per cent of the normal output, while BPCL’s Mumbai refinery was operating at 70 per cent of its capacity. HPCL, which was not part of the agitation, was also sourcing products like petrol and diesel from Essar Oil to make good any shortfall.