Petrol and diesel supplies in UP/NCR as well as the national Capital may face a dry-out situation as oil supplies from Mathura refinery and Meerut (terminal depot) would be affected due to their closure for maintenance and cleaning activities.
As per reports, the oil companies have directed retail outlets to top up their tanks to avoid running dry and to avoid incurring loss in sales. Many petrol dealers in Noida and Ghaziabad claimed that they were facing crisis due to delay in getting supplies.
Dharmveer Chaudhary, president of Noida Petrol Pump Dealers Association said Bharat Petroleum outlets seemed to be the worst affected, followed by Indian Oil Corporation outlets due to high volumes booked by their dealers. “By early evening on Thursday, as many as 45 petrol pumps in Gautam Buddh Nagar district had run dry. The district has a demand of 3.5 lakh kilolitre (one kilolitre equals 1,000 litres) petrol and 1.5 lakh KL diesel. Another 16 outlets ran dry in Ghaziabad that has a demand of five lakh KL petrol and 2.25 lakh KL diesel. I suggest vehicle owners should keep their tanks full over the next two months as there might be a crisis due to maintenance in refineries in North India,” said Chaudhary.
Jaiveer Singh, president of Ghaziabad Petrol Pump Dealers Association, informed that all the three companies, namely Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, had issued an advisory to their dealers to keep tanks topped up due to a possible shut down in the two supply centres. He further added that pipeline supply had been stopped from both Mathura, Meerut (both in Uttar Pradesh) and Panipat in Haryana. “Supplies were being sent through good trains and road transport from Meerut terminal which cannot match up the speed of pipeline supply and hence there were delays in receiving deliveries. We have more indents but getting poor supply has resulted in a crisis of fuel at retail outlets,” he said, adding that since Wednesday there was no stock of petrol at his station.
He received the supplies only on Thursday and by then, his stock of diesel ran dry.
The circular issued by the oil companies revealed that Panipat, Barauni, Baroda and Jalandhar refineries have also been shut down. These places are getting scarce supplies from locations like Manglia, Manmad and Kandla, which has led fuel supplies to go dry in several neighbouring areas.