Govt tells oil PSUs to sack strike leaders as crisis worsens

New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Petrol pumps in many parts of the
country went dry and more are expected to run out of stock by
tomorrow as the indefinite strike by oil PSU officers entered
the second day today, provoking the Government to ask company
managements to sack close to 70 executives leading the stir.

Nearly 30 percent of petrol pumps in Delhi and about 100
in Mumbai went without petrol and diesel, while there is a
minimum 7-day wait period for delivery of domestic LPG gas.

At the airports, absence of officers led to delay in
refuelling of airplanes and some flight were delayed. CNG
pumps in Mumbai went without gas after officers in ONGC
stopped natural gas production off Mumbai shore. Delhi may
also see a CNG crisis Friday.

Meanwhile, after Delhi and Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra invoked ESMA to ensure
uninterrupted fuel supplies.

The situation may worsen in next couple of days as talks
with Oil Sector Officers Association failed. OSOA, which did
not turn up for talks with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora
yesterday evening, stuck to its stand for immediate sanction
of higher wages in 14 PSUs.

Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police raided an IOC premises in
Noida, near here, where OSOA leaders had gathered after hiding
for two days, but no one including President Amit Kumar, could
be arrested as they made good escape during the lien the
company management took from them to conclude talks.

However, the two ONGC officers arrested Wednesday were
released by the court on condition that they give an
undertaking not to strike or instigate it.

Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said well-paid officers
were holding the nation to ransom even after court restraints.
ONGC has prepared a list of 64 officers, including Amit Kumar,
who are instigating the strike, to be suspended or terminated
from service.

Three Indian Oil Corp officers suspended yesterday would
also be terminated, while the same may be the fate of the
three suspended executives of gas firm GAIL India.

Crude oil production from ONGC's Bombay High was down to
almost half at 180,000 barrels Thursday while natural gas
production from the nation's largest field of Bassein South
and neighbouring fields fell to just 7.02 million standard
cubic meters per day from normal average of about 50 mmscmd.

Hazira in Gujarat received only 7.025 mmscmd gas Thursday
as the nation's main trunk Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline
remained out of operation. At Uran, the other gas receipt
facility on the West Coast, got 5.36 mmscmd from Mumbai
offshore against normal supplies of 12-13 mmscmd.

Cut in gas supplies impacted power and fertiliser plants.
17 urea manufacturing plants have taken a temporary shutdown
while three more may follow the suit soon.

"No doubt there are some difficulties at IOC and Bharat
Petroleum petrol pumps, but Hindustan Petroleum pumps were
fully functioning," Pandey said.

In the national capital, about 40 percent of the petrol
pumps owned by IOC and BPCL, totalling 120 out of 400-odd sale
points, went out of stocks.

"We have been managing the situation till now, but there
are constraints in loading and dispatching," IOC Chairman
Sarthak Behuria said. "If the strike continues, we may also
see dry-outs from tomorrow."

There were reports of long queues at petrol pumps and
delays in delivery of domestic LPG cylinders.

"The petrol pumps were running low on inventory in
anticipation of a petrol and diesel price cut," he said,
adding senior management personnel, along with Territorial
Army, had been deployed at airports to refuel airplanes.

The Government, however, maintained that the situation
was still manageable. "Some shortages can be there but the
situation is under control," said Additional Secretary in the
Petroleum Ministry S Sunderasan.

OSOA President Amit Kumar, surfacing after two days of
hiding, held talks with company management on their demands
for higher wages. But the talks, the first OSOA attended in a
week's time, failed as the union kept harping that the
Government accept their demands, Behuria said.

"We met OSOA this morning but progress could not be made
as they were harping on the same issues. We said we can do
nothing on their demands (for large hike in pay) since a
high-level ministerial committee headed by Home Minister P
Chidambaram has already been formed and it will give report in
30 days. But they didn't budge," Behuria said.

The striking officers are protesting lower-than-expected
increase in pay approved by the Government in November 2008.

IOC's seven refineries were producing only 40 per cent of
their output, with production being impacted at its key
refineries at Panipat and Mathura.

Its Koyali refinery in Gujarat was producing only 25 per
cent of the normal output, while BPCL's Mumbai refinery was
operating at 70 per cent of its capacity.

HPCL was taking products from private refiner Essar to
fill in the gaps. Essar, which is operating its 1,000 petrol
stations 24x7, had committed to supply 450,000 kilolitres of
petrol and diesel to the three fuel retailers and most of this
currently is being taken by HPCL. PTI