“Supply of petrol is normal,” said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel, who added that the state-owned petroleum import monopoly was receiving enough petrol from India to supply required volume of the fuel in the market. [break]
Petroleum dealers said scarcity was caused mainly because the corporation has sharply curtailed the supply of diesel over the past one week. Though normal consumption of diesel in the Kathmandu valley in this season stands at around 600 kiloliters (KL), dealers said the corporation has released only half of this volume.
NOC record shows the corporation on Tuesday distributed only about 270 KL of fuel in the valley. “The volume distributed on Sunday and Monday was no better,” said Linendra Pradhan of Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association.
He elaborated the shortage of diesel is not just limited to the valley, but is being felt by dealers, transporters, industries and generator users across the country.
Dhungel said the corporation had to reduce the supplies mainly because its stock of diesel across the country has sharply plummeted to a few thousand kiloliters mainly because it has been using the stock to maintain normal supplies.
With the government failing to adjust retail rates in line with the international trend, NOC has already suffered losses to the tune of Rs 2.5 billion over the last four months. Even though it took loans from banks and financial institutions to pay to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), it also burned the stock to manage the finances.
“In Thankot, the main distribution point for the valley, we have just around 1,700 KL of diesel. This is not even one-fourth of its diesel storage capacity,” stated Dhungel. NOC has capacity to stock over 8,000 KL of diesel in Thankot.
Sources said the situation of diesel stock is similar in other NOC depots as well.
Knowledgeable officials, meanwhile, disclosed the shortage surfaced mainly because NOC of late has adopted a strategy to cut the import of diesel, particularly as it suffers a loss of around Rs 19 on every liter of this fuel. “The focus is at bolstering import of petrol,” said the source. The corporation is presently earning Rs 2.77 per liter on petrol.
On Tuesday, the corporation distributed 367 KL of petrol in the valley from Thankot depot. Additional 40 KL was distributed through Amlekhgunj depot as well.
“The supply of petrol so far is fine. But given the low stock with which the corporation is operating, we doubt NOC will be able to maintain its normal supply in the weeks to come,” said Pradhan.
Dhungel admitted its total buffer stock of fuel across the country at present stands at 14,000 KL, which is far less than its total storage capacity of 71,000 KL.
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