While most of the refilling stations displayed ´no petrol´ signs, institutional dealers like Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Sajha, saw queue building from early in the morning.[break]
However, NOC officials claimed the shortage was short-term and will end within the next couple of days.
NOC records show it did not supply any fuel on Jan 25 and 26, citing no imports from due to public holidays in the southern neighbor. Of Friday, it distributed around 250 kiloliters (KL) of petrol and 375 KL of diesel in the Kathmandu Valley, but again stopped supplies on Saturday and Sunday, citing public holidays.
Given that the volume of supply made on Friday was just enough to meet demand for a day, almost all petroleum refilling stations had gone dry by Sunday afternoon. The crisis further deepened on Monday.
NOC officials like its Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel attributed the shortage to a day-long protest of tanker operators and public holidays. Dhungel said the corporation pumped out as much as 421 KL of petrol and 687 KL of diesel from Thankot on Monday.
While the volume is much higher than normal daily demand, Dhungel said NOC would continue to step up supplies over the next few days to ensure easy availability of fossil fuel in the market.
However, sources told Republica that the supply would largely depend on imports because its stock is depleting fast amid cut in import over the last few weeks.
“The management adopted a strategy to cut petrol imports, particularly after its cost prices went up, inflicting loss of around Rs 4 per liter. It refrained from supplying fuel in the market on days when it didn´t receive fuel because its petrol stock has depleted sharply,” the sources said.
Dhungel, however, said there was no problem with imports so far as India was giving fuel demanded by NOC. “Imports won´t be a problem, as we are soon clearing all dues of IOC,” he added.
Meanwhile, NOC has pressed the government to allow it raise price of petrol by as much as Rs 5 per liter to plug oil loss, which presently stands at over Rs 740 million a month.
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