Chennai’s petrol pumps in a mess

May 27, 2012 - K. Sreedevi |

chennai

Tags:

Chennai’s petrol pumps are in a mess. The problem that started with the shortage of diesel owing to partial shutdown of one of the key refineries in the South has now spilled over to petrol ever since the price hike on May 23.

While the dealers have been mostly accused of cheating on quantity and adulteration, Wednesday’s event saw consumers vent their ire regarding hoarding.

Soon after the announcement about the hike that saw petrol pumps drying up quickly, some irate customers even beat up a few dealers.

“We are the last link in the oil chain from companies to consumers. And hence we get flayed for anything and everything,” complained Mr M. Kannan, president of TN Petroleum Dealers Association.

There was a genuine problem with supplies on that day but dealers were hauled up for no reason, he added.

Most petrol pump owners had to ask for police protection to disperse the angry mobs. Chennai has about 300 fuel stations in the city.

Fuel supplies have been hit ever since a problem started in the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

The refinery of Hindustan Petroleum had an arrangement with Chennai-based Indian Oil Corporation to cater to its outlets in Karnataka while HP outlets in Chennai were serviced by IOC.

But the MRPL refinery’s closure on April 23 saw HP cutting supplies to IOC outlets in Karnataka, which in turn resulted in IOC returning the same gesture to HP outlets in the city. “This was the start of the problem,” explained a senior official of an oil company.

Also, Metros bore the brunt of the shortage as they use Euro-IV compliant fuel while rural areas use Euro-III fuel. “While oil companies managed to import Euro-III that saw the problem ease a bit in non-metro areas, Euro-IV fuel still remains an issue,” he said.

Supplies are still irregular and hence the problem has become acute, said Mr Murugavel, a petrol bunk owner in Thiruvanmayur. “While the OMCs are holding back supplies, it is the dealers like us who are facing the customers’ ire,” he added.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/155250" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-7744acb81751afff03b14daf919511f7" value="form-7744acb81751afff03b14daf919511f7" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86579309" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>