Petrol stock goes lowest in NOC's history

In the wake of existing petrol crisis, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has said that the petrol deficiency in the days to come might further worsen. Most of the private pumps of the Kathmandu valley have already gone dry and the NOC has stocks to meet the demands of two days only.

It is the lowest volume of the stocks in the history of NOC. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has already reduced the fuel supply following NOC's failure to pay outstanding due.

A media report said that oil import from India would be completely halted for the next three days mainly due to the closure of custom points, as Bihar is conducting municipal polls from Saturday.Bishwo Nath Goyal, general manager of NOC said the fuel crisis might be averted if the government would agree to bear the current monthly losses of the corporation which stood at Rs. 254 million or increase the oil prices immediately to deal with the situation.

Since the government has already made it clear that it will not raise petroleum prices, the only option left to it is to guarantee additional funds to cover the monthly loss and to pay Rs. 240 million that the NOC has pledged to pay IOC every month as a part of a deal to gradually clear outstanding dues, Goyal said. Deputy general manager of NOC Umesh Dahal said that the sole oil importer has been forced to compromise with vital expenditures related to security of storage facilities due to its worsening financial condition.

Talking to media persons, he said that as a result of shrinking recurrent funds, some of the important and routine repair and maintenance activities have been delayed.

According to him, NOC currently has a storage capacity of 71,000 kiloliters across the country and it expends around Rs. 30 million for the purpose of routine repair and maintenance of highly sensitive storage facilities.