New Delhi: Country Petrol pump Government fuel retailers are facing intermittent drought as cuts by private players drive public sector outlets of retail and wholesale consumers, augmenting their tanker fleets that are already fueling the growing agriculture sector. Road traffic was facing demand during the holiday season.
Panic buying has compounded the problem by creating a run on fuel stocks at pumps and creating long and often chaotic queues at outlets. While metros and cities close to supply depots have been spared, drying up of pumps has been reported from parts of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Senior marketing executives of state fuel retailers insisted there was no shortage of fuel and dismissed talk of supply cuts as being spread by private players “to cover their own errands”.
“Our direction (from the government) is clear. We have to deliver fuel to every nook and corner of the country. There’s no need to panic. There is no shortage of any product. IndianOil’s marketing director V Satish Kumar, which has a 52% share in the fuel retail market, told TOI, “Our refineries are almost fully operational.”
He said the sudden surge in demand has led to “logistics issues”, due to which some pumps may run dry for some time in some areas. “IndianOil is meeting the demand. But yes, logistics is under pressure as companies are suddenly seeing more than 50% monthly growth in sales of petrol, diesel due to market change,” he said.
It’s been a problem for months. Private companies like Reliance and Naira are cutting sales as losses on petrol and diesel have increased as state retailers, which control 90% of the fuel market, did not raise the pump price with crude.
Current retail rates refer to crude at $85 a barrel, which is hovering at $120. As the losses widened to Rs 21 a litre, private players have recently stopped supplying or replenishing stock to dealers and charging Rs 2-3 per liter more as a sales constraint.
“If you look at the data from Rajasthan, you will get an idea of the spurt in demand, which is already increasing due to higher consumption in freight, farming, tourism and power generation. As the tanker fleet has grown, there may be a slight delay in replenishment at some distant outlets,” Bharat Petroleum executive Abbas Akhtar told TOI.
Panic buying has compounded the problem by creating a run on fuel stocks at pumps and creating long and often chaotic queues at outlets. While metros and cities close to supply depots have been spared, drying up of pumps has been reported from parts of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Senior marketing executives of state fuel retailers insisted there was no shortage of fuel and dismissed talk of supply cuts as being spread by private players “to cover their own errands”.
“Our direction (from the government) is clear. We have to deliver fuel to every nook and corner of the country. There’s no need to panic. There is no shortage of any product. IndianOil’s marketing director V Satish Kumar, which has a 52% share in the fuel retail market, told TOI, “Our refineries are almost fully operational.”
He said the sudden surge in demand has led to “logistics issues”, due to which some pumps may run dry for some time in some areas. “IndianOil is meeting the demand. But yes, logistics is under pressure as companies are suddenly seeing more than 50% monthly growth in sales of petrol, diesel due to market change,” he said.
It’s been a problem for months. Private companies like Reliance and Naira are cutting sales as losses on petrol and diesel have increased as state retailers, which control 90% of the fuel market, did not raise the pump price with crude.
Current retail rates refer to crude at $85 a barrel, which is hovering at $120. As the losses widened to Rs 21 a litre, private players have recently stopped supplying or replenishing stock to dealers and charging Rs 2-3 per liter more as a sales constraint.
“If you look at the data from Rajasthan, you will get an idea of the spurt in demand, which is already increasing due to higher consumption in freight, farming, tourism and power generation. As the tanker fleet has grown, there may be a slight delay in replenishment at some distant outlets,” Bharat Petroleum executive Abbas Akhtar told TOI.