Indian Oil Corporation, which meets more than 50 per cent of the demand for cooking gas in the State, is reducing its dependence on bulk supplies from Mangalore and is sourcing more gas from Bharat Petroleum Corporation’s Kochi refinery.
A senior IOC official told The Hindu on Wednesday that Kerala required 33,10,000 domestic cylinders a month, which translated into around 47,000 tonnes of gas for domestic use. BPCL’s production of cooking gas in Kochi ranged between 42 and 43,000 tonnes a month. This gas was now being met through bulk supplies from Mangalore and Chennai.
The IOC official said that bulk movement of LPG from Mangalore had been reduced to around 60 lorry-loads a day from the previous level of 120 lorry-loads.
This level of supplies from Mangalore is expected to be further reduced in the coming days.
Kerala requires around 55,000 tonnes of LPG a month, including the 8,000 tonnes that are used up as industrial and auto fuel.
IOC meets more than 50 per cent of this demand; Bharat Petroleum Corporation more than 32 per cent and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation 17 per cent.
The IOC official said that an LPG receiving terminal would be set up at the Kochi port and that something definite on the project was expected to emerge by December. He said that the LPG supply situation in the State had improved considerably, a claim backed by reports that the waiting period for a refill had come down from 60 days a month ago to between 50 and 55 days now.
Roy Thekkan, convener of LPG Consumers’ Grievances Redressal Cell, told The Hindu though the situation had improved now it would be possible to keep up the supplies only with the bottling plants and supply chain being kept open through all Sundays and holidays against the current practice of supplies on alternate Sundays.
Mr. Thekkan said that though the oil marketing companies promised to keep supplies open on Deepavali day on Tuesday there was no supply.
IOC has attributed this to a demand by lorry crew for higher wages for working on a holiday.
The IOC official said that the company had enough capacity and sufficient bulk supplies to meet the rising demanding in the State.
