KOLKATA: Distributors in Kolkata almost ran out of their LPG stock for commercial supply on Wednesday evening, following a directive from the Union oil ministry to stop production for non-priority sectors earlier this week, report Udit Prasanna Mukherji and Krishnendu Bandopadhyay.Sources in oil marketing companies told TOI on Tuesday that they had been instructed not to send commercial LPG cylinders — other than those meant for hospitals, army, railways and schools — to distributors.
Distributors can supply the gas to restaurants, hotels and other businesses from their existing stock. Bengal’s daily commercial LPG requirement is around 320 tonnes, or 18,000-20,000 cylinders of 19.5kg. Till Tuesday morning, it was learnt, Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL distributors together had 40,000-45,000 cylinders of commercial LPG. By Wednesday evening, the stock reduced to a negligible level.“Many restaurants are requesting for cylinders, but we don’t have any. The fresh stock that will come will be supplied to hospitals, schools and other sectors that are in exempted category,” said a distributor of Bharat Gas.“The city has run out of commercial LPG cylinders,” said LPG dealers’ spokesperson Bijon Bihari Biswas. “Till a revised order and fresh supplies come, commercial LPG distribution will not resume.”Faced with an uncertainty resulting from the LPG crunch, most eateries in Kolkata started restricting operations from Wednesday.The crisis coincided with a rise in the price of commercial LPG cylinders weighing 19.5 kg from Rs 1,875.5 to Rs 1,990.Even before issuing the order for stoppage of production of commercial LPG for non-priority sectors, the oil ministry had on March 5 instructed all oil marketing companies to prioritise domestic LPG refilling with the available stock. The oil ministry’s circular asked all oil refining companies to ensure that propane and butane streams (main input for LPG) , recovered, fractionated or otherwise available with them are utilised for production of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and make it available to the 3 public sector OMCs, viz IOCL, HPCL and BPCL, only.“All public sector OMCs shall ensure that LPG so procured is supplied/marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only,” it added.
