The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Crisis fuels mad scramble

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Friday, Jan 09, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Crisis fuels mad scramble

Special Correspondent

Customers made a beeline, mainly for petrol

— Photo: R.RAVINDRAN

QUEUING UP: Motorists line up at a petrol bunk in Royapettah on Thursday.

CHENNAI: Chennai and its suburbs were in the grip of a fuel crisis on Thursday as most bunks ran out of stock as the strike by officers of the public sector oil companies, except those of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., entered the second day.

Hundreds of motorists since morning started flocking to the few petrol bunks, particularly those of HPCL, which dispensed automobile fuel, fearing that even they would put up no stock board by evening. With vehicles lining up at the outlets, the nearby roads witnessed traffic snarls.

Their apprehensions were not unfounded, as by noon retail outlets of Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd were closed. By evening, even some of 58 retail outlets of HPCL ran out of stocks in view of the customer rush. Fuel sale by quantity was almost one-and-a-half times higher than the regular volume, an official of HPCL said.

The rush was primarily for petrol. There was no shortage of diesel on account of the truckers’ strike. The company supplied loads from its Tondiarpet terminal till late in the evening, subject to availability of trucks, the official added.

A lot would depend on the trucks on Friday as many of the vehicles are also expected to join the nationwide strike by truck owners. The HPCL is planning to replenish stocks at its Tondiarpet terminal by moving products from Coimbatore and Vijayawada.

This has been necessitated as IOC has not been lifting stocks from the Manali refinery of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd since Wednesday. In its capacity as the lead company in the State, IOC is in charge of supplying the fuels to HPCL and BPCL.

Confirming this, sources in CPCL said the offtake has been affected.

The refinery, which is being operated at only 70 per cent of its capacity, has high stocks of petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel and liquefied petroleum gas. The refinery would have to be gradually shutdown if the strike prolonged, source said.

With regard to the cooking gas supplies, distributors of IOC and BPCL said they did not receive fresh loads on Thursday. A senior official of IOC said there was no production at the bottling plants in Ennore and Manali as management cadre officials, who supervised the work, were deputed to manage the ATF supplies at the airport.

The ATF supply at the airport could be maintained till Friday evening, sources in the oil industry added.

Apart from facing the ire of the domestic customers, what is causing concern to many LPG distributors of IOC is the risk of losing commercial cylinder business. “Unlike the domestic cylinder, the 19-kg supplies have to be made immediately and in large numbers,” a distributor said. It would be difficult to retain the customers in the absence of fresh supplies of the cylinders.

The problem, according to another distributor, comes at a time when the prices of the 19-kg commercial cylinders have dropped by over Rs.450 each since November.

As regards the domestic cylinder supplies, the distributors said the refill bookings were on the rise and many households may have to go without LPG this harvest festival.

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