Chennai,
May 28:
It was a like a curfew this morning in the heart of the city, Triplicane.
Except for a few government buses, there were hardly any vehicles on the
road as fuel shortage grips the city.
Two days ago, it started as diesel shortage but now the shortage is for
both diesel and petrol across the city. Every other bunk has a ‘no stocks board.'
Prices of vegetables have shot up by 20-25 per cent in the last two days as
a consequence. “What can we do? Our suppliers have jacked up the
prices. We need to do it as well,” said a vegetable vendor in the city.
And, for office goers, it was a nightmare with hardly any fuel available in
and around Triplicane, which is not only famous for the M.A. Chidambaram
cricket stadium but also for housing a large number of bachelor ‘mansions'.
“I have been roaming around the place for over an hour for fuel but
returned without any,” said Mr S. Venkatesh, who works for a software company.
If the fuel shortage continues for the next couple of days, it is also
likely to affect the corporates.
Every company has a genset today to cope with the power shortage. Some have
inventory for two to three days.
However, if the problem goes beyond two days, companies are in for trouble,
said an official of a large software company who is not authorised to speak to
the media.
Blame gensets
Oil companies say that the increased demand was mainly for power
generation.
Considerable quantities are being consumed by industrial units and also in
shops, hotels, hospitals and other commercial establishments.
There is an increasing tendency of industry to substitute other costlier
fuels such as furnace oil with cheaper diesel, said Mr V.K. Jaychandran, State
Level Coordinator for Oil Industry, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry and Executive
Director, Indian Oil, Tamil Nadu.
On shortage of petrol in the city, an official of IOC said that the dealers
buy from oil companies a combination of diesel and petrol.
Since it is costlier to buy only petrol (the dealers need to pay cash to
get the fuel) on a standalone basis, the dealers are shying away from buying
petrol.
This has, in turn, resulted in a shortage of petrol in the city.
Meanwhile, BPCL is planning to move an oil tanker to the Chennai port
tomorrow. Both IOCL and HPCL tankers are also expected to berth at Chennai port
by tomorrow and is expected to infuse 67,000 KL of diesel into city pumps, he
said.
The shortage is only in Chennai. For this, oil company officials say it was
due to ‘panic buying' by consumers. In the last couple of days, there were
visuals that showed there could be possible fuel shortage.
Huge demand
In a meeting today with the Tamil Nadu Government officials, an oil company
representative said that during the months of February, March and April, a
growth of 25.2 per cent, 25.7 per cent and 19.5 per cent respectively was
recorded for diesel.
The all-India average growth rate for diesel was around 8 per cent during
this period. In the current month also the industry has been recording a growth
of around 20 per cent.
The unplanned shutdown of one of the units of CPCL from April 27 to May 14
impacted availability of diesel to a certain extent. The shutdown of MRPL
between April 12 and 22 due to water shortage further impacted availability
across the three Southern States — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
IOC, as per marketing arrangements, canalises the production of CPCL to
other oil companies.
While the above steps are likely to ease the situation of diesel
availability in Chennai, the oil companies made a request to consumers not to
take more than their requirements and hoard diesel. Tamil Nadu, through the
Civil Supplies Department, will also carry out checks to ensure that no
hoarding takes place and will initiate strict action against anybody indulging
in the same, said a statement.
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