IOC pledges to dispatch 100 bullets of cooking gas per day next week

KATHMANDU:

In a bid to resolve the prolonged shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or cooking gas by importing more, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) — the state-owned petroleum supply monopoly — has requested its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to dispatch 100 loaded bullets per day for the last week of January against 55 bullets at present.

To meet the quota of import extended by NOC for January and February, it needs to ferry at least 60 bullets per day and it is sure there will be a shortfall again in import if IOC does not dispatch 100 bullets, according to Chandika Prasad Bhatta, managing director of NOC. NOC has increased import quota for LPG by 31 per cent to 29,416 tonnes for January and February from 22,377 tonnes.

“We’ve requested IOC to dispatch 100 bullets per day citing the prolonged scarcity of cooking gas here and they’ve also pledged to provide the same.”

IOC has pledged to dispatch 34 bullets from Barauni refinery, the nearest refinery from Nepal, 36 bullets from Haldia, 21 bullets from Mathura and nine bullets from Karnal (Panipat).

Gas bottlers, who import cooking gas, have said that IOC refineries today loaded only 17 bullets from Barauni, 20 bullets from Haldia, nine bullets from Mathura and six bullets from Karnal.

“Though NOC has extended quota of 29,416 tonnes for January and February, IOC must dispatch 100 bullets for a week in January and 60 bullets per day in February to meet the full quota,” said Shiva Prasad Ghimire, president of LP Gas Industry Association.

The current situation is due to shortfall of about 6,000 tonnes in December, as Barauni refinery of IOC was closed for maintenance.

Source: THT