Tuesday 5 August 2014

No Shortage of Petroleum Products in the Country

No Shortage of Petroleum Products in the Country The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharamendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that as on 28th July, 2014 there is no overall shortage of petroleum products in the country. However, intermittent shortage in 5 states namely; Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh was noticed by the Government. The shortage was due to un-planned shutdown of Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) Bhatinda Refinery, extended shutdown of Panipat Refinery, shortfall in production at various other refineries such as Barauni, Visakh, Mumbai, Bina. In view of high industry demand for Rail rakes in the North, there has been shortage of rakes accompanied with higher lead times and lower turnaround. During the month of June, 2014, supplies of diesel and petrol in four districts were affected i.e. Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar and Adilabad due to creation of new state Telengana with effect from 02.06.2014.

Retail Outlet dealers communicate their products requirements to OMCs by way of indents. On receipt of indents and corresponding payments, the installation/Depots make arrangements to deliver products to them. If OMCs anticipate shortages, the OMCs make alternate arrangements for products availability from alternate sources or by exchanging product with other OMCs.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas convened a meeting with OMCs and Railways on 07.07.2014 and action plan was drawn for short-term/long-term measures. With close coordination with Railways the movement of rakes were rationalized and OMCs were able to meet the product positioning at the affected states from Stand alone Refineries (SARs).

OMCs have finalized imports of petrol during July-August, 2014 period to meet the demand due to shortfall from own refineries. Diesel was procured extra from SARs (Reliance/Essar Oil/Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Limited) to meet the demand.

Railways have also informed that they shall accord high priority to the movement of petroleum products.


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YKB

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