PM to meet Deora, oil execs today to resolve crisis
09 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai: The strike by the oil company executives under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) has brought the country to a grinding halt with over 90 per cent of petrol pumps across the country running dry.
Ajay Bansal, general secretary, Federation of All-India Petroleum Traders said "Only HPCL petrol pumps are running, but they would be out of fuel in the next three hours, aggravating the situation further".
Petroleum minister Murli Deora along with some oil executives is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today in his bid to resolve the current crisis.
With the strike entering, Day three over 90 per cent of the country’s petrol pumps have run out of fuel and affected power generation in government-owned power companies.
“The problem manifested itself much quicker than expected because the petrol pumps were low on inventories in anticipation of fuel price cuts. The truckers’ strike, which entered its third day today along with the oilmen strike will increase the hardships of the common man,” said Krishan Kalra, secretary-general, PHD Chamber.
Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum Corp had asked their employees in Maharashtra to report to work today as the government has invoked the provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), which restrains workers from going on strike.
However, as of 1010 hrs IOC officers had not reported to work today despite the government invoking ESMA.
In Maharashtra, the 650-Mw Uran plant of the state-owned Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (Mahagenco) was shut down. The state is already reeling under a power shortage of 4,500 Mw to 5,000 Mw, resulting in power cuts between 3 and 12 hours in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.
The central government-owned Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd’s (RGPPL) generation, which had dipped from 650 Mw to 300 Mw on Wednesday due to non-availability of gas, is now working at full capacity after RGPPL managed to source the gas from spot market on Thursday, said an official from the state-owned power distribution company, Mahadiscom.
So far, 17 gas-based urea plants have been shut down. “The strike is affecting production. This will lead to shortage of fertiliser and the country will have to import fertiliser to meet the domestic demand,” said Ajay Shriram, Chairman and Managing Director, Shriram Fertilizers and Chemicals.
Mahanagar Gas (MGL), on the other hand, has stopped the supply to the industrial, commercial and CNG segments in a phased manner, for ensuring supply to the domestic consumers. This has led to closure of over five restaurants in Mumbai with more shutdowns in the offing, said the Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India. MGL sources gas from ONGC’s Mumbai High fields.
The oil company executives under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) began their indefinite strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.
09 Jan 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:MUMBAI: A majority of fuel-starved autorickshaws, taxis, schoolbuses and private vehicles in India's financial capital remained off the roads on
Friday morning, putting millions of residents to hardship.
The worst-hit in the morning were millions of office-goers, school and college students who were stranded at various points around the city in the absence of transport.
Although the bus service BEST managed to keep its fleet running, chaos prevailed as the buses were jampacked, forcing many people to walk down to the nearest railway station.
State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ramesh Bang said that the government had already issued notification to ensure that the movement of essential supplies around the state was not affected.
"The district authorities have been directed to provide adequate security to trucks and vehicles carrying essential supplies of daily use and ensure that fuel arrangements are also made for them," Bang said on Friday morning.
According to the Mantralaya (state government secretariat) Control Room, so far there have been no reports of any disruption in movement of essential supplies from any part of the state.
However, shortages have begun to affect the common man as the striking oil company employees failed to heed Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's warning to end their agitation by 9am on Friday.
Thursday night, the state government had threatened to invoke the provisions of the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) if the agitation continued.
A spokesman for the Bombay Taximen's Association said that over 70 percent of the cabs in Mumbai have run out of CNG, so they are compelled to remain off the roads. Even after the agitation is called off, it would take at least three days for the situation to normalise, the spokesman said.
Minakshi Baikar, a Dahisar housewife, was struggling to keep the kitchen fire burning. "Unluckily, my gas cylinder got over Wednesday night. The local gas supply agent does not know when supplies will come. Meanwhile, we are forced to buy kerosene from the black market for cooking," she lamented.
Many schools, especially those following the ICSE and CBSE systems, are holding third semester examinations. Panic-stricken parents were seen literally jogging to the schools with their children to reach the schools on time.
"I have a scooter and a car, but no petrol. There are no autorickshaws, buses are jampacked. Since we're getting late, my daughter and I jogged one kilometre to Cambridge School this morning," said Pankaj J., a realty consultant.
Some people have decided to pool vehicles to save petrol.
09 Jan 2009;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:A large number of petrol pumps across the country went dry as the indefinite strike by oil PSU executives entered the third day on Friday, with possibility of a major fuel supply crisis looming large.
About two-third of the 425 petrol pumps in the national capital did not open because of lack of stocks, while 60 per cent outlets in Mumbai hung 'No Stock' signs boards.
Mumbai also ran out of compressed natural gas (CNG) that runs some two lakh buses, taxis and autos but Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.
While Hindustan Petroleum pumps across the country were operating normally, Bharat Petroleum senior management officials were ensuring that there were dispatches of petrol and diesel to the company's outlets. However, Indian Oil, the nation's largest retailer, had almost nil dispatches of products.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora late on Thursday evening drove to Noida on the outskirts of the national capital, to meet the striking Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) leaders but the talks to resolve the imbroglio failed.
OSOA kept harping on Government conceding on its demand for higher increase in their wages than those approved in November but Deora said he did not have powers to approve anything that would also have ramifications on other PSUs.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already appointed a committee of ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram to look into their demands within 30 days.
At the airports, absence of officers led to delay in refuelling of airplanes and some flight were delayed.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) Chairman RS Sharma failed to convince his company officials to resume gas production from the country's largest field in Western Offshore, affecting power generation and fertilizer production.
Crude oil production from Mumbai offshore was almost half at 1,80,000 barrels and four key refineries of Indian Oil operated at 25 to 30 per cent of their capacity.
Oil PSUs strike cripples India, petrol pumps go dry
09 Jan 2009;hindustantimes.com:A large number of petrol pumps across the country went dry as the indefinite strike by oil PSU executives entered the third day on Friday, with possibility of a major fuel supply crisis looming large.
About two-third of the 425 petrol pumps in the national capital did not open because of lack of stocks, while 60 per cent outlets in Mumbai hung 'No Stock' signs boards.
Mumbai also ran out of compressed natural gas (CNG) that runs some two lakh buses, taxis and autos but Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.
While Hindustan Petroleum pumps across the country were operating normally, Bharat Petroleum senior management officials were ensuring that there were dispatches of petrol and diesel to the company's outlets. However, Indian Oil, the nation's largest retailer, had almost nil dispatches of products.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora late on Thursday evening drove to Noida on the outskirts of the national capital, to meet the striking Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) leaders but the talks to resolve the imbroglio failed.
OSOA kept harping on Government conceding on its demand for higher increase in their wages than those approved in November but Deora said he did not have powers to approve anything that would also have ramifications on other PSUs.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already appointed a committee of ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram to look into their demands within 30 days.
At the airports, absence of officers led to delay in refuelling of airplanes and some flight were delayed.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) Chairman RS Sharma failed to convince his company officials to resume gas production from the country's largest field in Western Offshore, affecting power generation and fertilizer production.
Crude oil production from Mumbai offshore was almost half at 1,80,000 barrels and four key refineries of Indian Oil operated at 25 to 30 per cent of their capacity.
08 Jan 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: The capital faces the prospect of acute shortages of fuel, power and essential commodities in the next few days. The situation turned
serious on Wednesday after officers of PSU oil companies went on an indefinite strike, stalling work at oil/gas fields and refineries, even as the nationwide truckers' stir continued for the third day.
Though the city government quickly imposed ESMA in a bid to maintain supplies, there were reports that many petrol pumps were on the verge of running out of stock. The petroleum traders federation said one in every four pump in Delhi had gone dry as most filling stations were maintaining low stocks in anticipation of a fuel cut announcement.
By late Wednesday evening, two Delhi government-owned gas-based power plants, with an installed capacity of 600MW, were giving just 10% output due to lack of gas supply.
There was further bad news as talks between the striking oil officers and the government broke down late on Wednesday, snuffing out hopes of an early resolution to the impasse. The oil officers are demanding higher wages.
The stir also hit air traffic, with airlines reporting a slowdown in refuelling of planes. At least three Air India (domestic) flights got delayed by two hours due to refuelling problems on Wednesday evening. Airlines fear the situation may get worse from Thursday if the strike by lower and middle level oil staff gathers steam.
The cooking gas situation too was grim as no fresh supplies were reaching godowns. ``There were no supplies today and most likely there will be none tomorrow as well,'' said P N Seth, general secretary of All India Federation of LPG Distributors.
Some distributors, however, said the supply was only partially disrupted as HPCL plants were operational. Chandra Prakash, president, LPG Distribution Federation, (Delhi region) said there was no need for consumers to panic. ``Our stocks have not finished and some plants are still operational. About 80 trucks did come to our godowns today,'' he added.
Meanwhile, the truckers' strike hasn't yet had a major impact on vegetable prices though godown prices of potato and capsicum saw a marginal increase. However, prices of fruits were shooting up. ``In next two days, things would worsen as no trucks carrying vegetables and fruits have started from their points of origin in past two days,'' said Nitesh Kumar, a commision agent at Azadpur mandi.
Reacting to the oil stir, the Delhi government arrested Narender Goyal, secretary of Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) on Wednesday under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). Officers of 13 oil PSUs have gone on strike in defiance of Delhi High Court orders. OSOA claims to represent 45,000 executives working in state-run firms. Till late evening, there were reports of 17 OSOA leaders being arrested and nearly 200 being suspended in different parts of the country.
As gas production dipped, supplies to industry was rationed to keep CNG projects running in cities. Jet refuel stations were manned by senior oil company employees who were part of the Territorial Army.
The strike reduced IndianOil's production by one-third, particularly its refineries in Panipat and Mathura that feed Delhi and the northen region. Bharat Petroleum's production was reduced by a little less than half. Hindustan Petroleum was working normally as its officers did not join the strike. Gas utility GAIL too suffered.
The worst hit was Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Gas production from its fields in Gujarat came down to one-third. Oil production dipped 70-80%.
NTPC was running its gas-fired generation units across the country at 70% capacity due to curtailed supplies, while 17 fertiliser units are reported to have shut down in the absence of gas.
Meanwhile in the capital, Ashok Badhwar, president of Federation of All India Petroleum Traders said all filling stations would soon run out of fuel if the stir continued. ``The strike has already led to almost 100 petrol pumps out of the 413 in Delhi going dry,'' he added.
RIL gives in to US pressure, stops gasoline to Iran
07 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Nevin John:Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL), the largest private company in the country, has decided to stop gasoline supplies to Iran after fulfilling all contractual obligations. This follows a letter written by eight US Congressmen to that country's Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) asking it to immediately suspend all financial assistance to RIL until the company agrees to stop selling gasoline to Iran. The Exim Bank has provided two separate loan guarantees worth $900 million, including a $400-million loan by JPMorgan in August. The loan was for funding RIL's expansion programme. Sources in the know said the decision will not impact RIL's business as the quantity of supplies was not substantial. The company has diverted supplies to other regions, including Europe and the US. When contacted, an RIL spokesperson said, "As a corporate policy and to maintain business confidentiality, we don’t comment on specific transactions." The letter written by the eight Congressmen said that RIL, being a major supplier of gasoline to Iran, is detrimental to the national security interests of the US and the loan is in direct collision with its foreign policy on Iran. The four-page letter was signed by Congressmen Brad Sherman, Mark Steven Kirk, Howard L Berman, Edward R Royce, Steve Israel, Steven R Rothman, Ron Klein and Gary Ackerman. Of these, while Berman is chairman of the powerful House Committee of Foreign Relations, Sherman, Ackerman, Klein and Royce are its members. Israel and Rothman are members of the House Appropriations Committee. "Given the apparent lack of consideration of the relationship between Iran and RIL during the approval of the two loan guarantees packages for RIL, we further urge that you take whatever action necessary to secure an understanding with Reliance that before any undisturbed guarantees are released, Reliance will commit to ceasing its gasoline shipments to Iran," the lawmakers said. The letter from the House of Representative members follows another sent by Senators Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl early November, who also raised similar concerns about Ex-Im Bank's ties with RIL. Ex-Im had then defended its role saying, "Ex-Im is not aware that Iran is among the largest markets of RIL's energy products. In fact, RIL has informed us that sales to Iran from its existing refinery present only a small portion of RIL's total trade activities." "The bank has communicated to RIL regarding the letter from the lawmakers and put pressure on them to withdraw from supply to Iran. The company has responded to the concerns of the bank and lawmakers immediately since it did not want to spoil its relations in the US," the sources said.
