The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) on Tuesday clarified that fuel supply was normal at all retail outlets (ROs) in the city. In a tweet, it said: “Fuel supply normal at all Chennai ROs. No shortage of Petrol/Diesel. Operational issues y’day caused disruption of a few hours at one company’s outlets. All rectified, ample #fuel is being supplied to all ROs in the area #NormalFuelSupply #NoFuelShortage.”
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V.C. Asokan, the State-level oil industry coordinator and Executive Director of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL), said the issue with the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.’s (BPCL) diesel supply to a section of their fuel outlets had been resolved. Diesel supply to a section of BPCL retail outlets were affected on Sunday and Monday.
Sources in BPCL said the carrier bringing fuel to the city was delayed due to adverse weather conditions on the west coast, which was the reason for the disruption of a few hours. “It docked at Ennore on Monday evening and was still unloading on Tuesday evening. We had also arranged for fuel supplies from our Karur terminal, which gets diesel from the Kochi refinery,” an official source said.
A BPCL distributor said customers, especially those taking diesel in bulk, were unhappy with the situation. “High volume dealers suffered the most. Though the company had told us that the issue was a temporary one, we cannot say the same to customers,” he said.
Meanwhile, K. Suresh Kumar, president of the Chennai Indian Oil Dealers Association, said the shortage of petroleum fuels was not pertaining to the entire oil industry but only with BPCL. There are no ‘dry outs’ in IOCL retail outlets, and the company has been fully supplying outlets according to the indents placed, he added.