The corporation distributed 512 kiloliters of petrol on Sunday and also 400 kiloliters on Monday, said officials. All the dealers that placed orders have been supplied with as much petrol as they demanded since Sunday, said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel.[break]
“If any of the petrol pumps is still tagging ´no petrol´ sign, it´s solely because it did not place any order,” he told Republica, adding that consumers that long braved petrol shortage will finally be able to buy the fuel without queuing up in next few days.
The supply situation showed signs of easing mainly because the corporation paid well over Rs 267.12 billion (IRs 166.95 billion) to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) since February 10 and managed to step up imports.
NOC records show it paid Rs 1.60 billion to IOC on February 3 and again released Rs 1.60 billion on February 10, Rs 320 million on February 12 and Rs 750 million on Monday.
“Citizens Investment Trust (CIT) on Monday provided us Rs 750 million of the government-arranged Rs 2 billion loan. We instantly transferred the amount to IOC. It will receive the amount on Tuesday,” said Dhungel.
Following such massive payments, IOC through its Raxaul depot -- the largest import point for Nepal -- supplied 2,158 KL of petroleum products on Thursday, 3,067 KL on Friday, and 2,480 KL on Saturday.
While supply made to Nepal on Thursday was equal to imports of any normal day, volume of fuel released on Friday and Saturday are much higher than that. Although NOC officials did not disclose Monday´s receipt, they said the volume imported on the day was more than the normal quantity.
Despite such rise in imports, NOC says that consumers of diesel will still need to wait at least till next week for supply to ease.
“We have started to distribute more than normal volume of diesel. However, as demand for this fuel is huge and a large number of vehicles have been idled due to fuel shortage, it will take a little more time for the situation to become normal,” said Dhungel.
As for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), NOC officials said gas bottlers that supply the popular cooking fuel in the market are presently receiving 700 tons of gas every day. The volume is slightly higher than normal daily demand.
“Compared to last week, import situation is definitely better. However, it will take about a fortnight for consumers to find LPG relatively easily,” said Dhungel.
Corporation officials further said the consumers reeling under shortage need not worry about future supplies now because it still has not received Rs 1.30 billion of the loan amount that the government arranged from CIT.
Given that the amount is higher than the loss that the corporation incurs in a month, officials said this would enable the corporation to import enough fuel without trouble till March.
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