LPG, petrol scarcity hits hard valley districts
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 25 2024: All the valley districts and certain hill areas of the State which have been reeling under LPG scarcity since several weeks back are now hit hard by acute shortage of petrol.

Shortage or scarcity of LPG and petrol is caused by inadequate shipping and the reason for inadequate shipping is unreliable highways, sources said.

There is enough stock of diesel at Malom Oil Depot and it is available at petrol pumps too.

This does not mean greater volume of diesel were shipped in.

There is diesel in stock because the volume of sale has declined considerably.

But petrol runs out at 11 am at the limited number of oil pumps which were supplied with petrol for the day, said the sources.

LPG, petrol scarcity hits hard valley districts

Considering the woes of the people, IOCL Divisional Retail Sales Office Imphal, Sekmai LPG Bottling Plant and Malom Oil Depot have been supplying LPG and petrol to ROs and distributors at their best level, according to the sources.

Sekmai Bottling Plant released 20 truck loads or 6480 LPG refills to distributors on Saturday.

Under normal conditions or when there was enough stock of LPG, the bottling plant used to release 40 to 45 truck loads or 12,960 to 14,580 refills in a day.

The current supply rate is determined after rationalising the volume of bulk LPG the bottling plant receives from LPG bullet tankers, said the sources.

IOCL's market share of petrol in Manipur is 300 Kls to 350 Kls in a day.

If the Malom Oil Depot releases at least 300 Kls of petrol in a day, it is enough for the State's requirement.

But the daily supply rate was cut down drastically since July and it got worse in August.

Sometimes only 60 Kls of petrol were released in a day.

The supply of petrol from Malom Oil Depot to ROs improved a little since August 19 .

The depot released 379 Kls of petrol on August 19, 168 Kls on August 20, 272 Kls on August 21, 260 Kls on August 22, 326 Kls on August 23 and 325 Kls on 24, said the sources.

This supply is done directly from TTs to oil pumps without unloading at the Malom depot's storage tanks.

With the petrol shipped in by TTs supplied to oil pumps directly, it would be wrong to say that there is abundant stock of petrol at Malom Oil Depot and the same is true for LPG too, said the sources.

The volume of petrol released by Malom Oil Depot to oil pumps is distributed among around 103 oil pumps of IOCL scattered across the valley districts.

Even as these oil pumps are supplied with 4 Kls to 8 Kls of petrol in a day, their petrol stocks run out before noon.

That is why, most oil pumps put up the signboard 'petrol nil' in the afternoon, the sources said.

Notably, CAF&PD Director Robertson Asem issued a press release on August 22 claiming there are enough stocks of petrol and diesel in the State.

He also appealed to the public not to resort to panic buying of fuel.

However, it has been four/five days since most oil pumps have been putting up the 'petrol nil' signboard.

Petrol is however sold openly in black market near and in front of the oil pumps adorned with the 'petrol nil' signboards.

Petrol is sold at around Rs 150 per litre at these black markets.

One man who stood in queue for three hours to fill his vehicle with petrol decried that the Government has not been taking action against selling petrol in black market.

Despite the CAF&PD's direction to all ROs to remain open, petrol is not available at the maximum number of oil pumps, he pointed out.

On the other hand, a number of loaded tankers are currently stranded at Jiribam.

The tankers were supposed to head towards Imphal yesterday but they decided to stay put at Jiribam following incessant rainfall and considering the highly deplorable condition of Imphal-Jiribam highway.

As there is no escort service on Sunday, the tankers would head for Imphal on Monday, said the sources.