MANGALURU: Faced with a steep reduction in offtake of petroleum products – diesel, petrol and aviation turbine fuel – thanks to nation wide lockdown due to Covid-19, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) – Karnataka’s only oil refinery has declared ‘force majeure’ to contracted crude oil supplies. With its tanks full and OMCs not lifting petroleum products, MRPL will shed 0.5 million tonnes of crude up to first week of May.
Supplying fuel to entire Karnataka and even neighouring Kerala and other Southern states, this ‘force majeure’ move by MRPL will in no way disrupt fuel availability, said M Venkatesh, managing director, MRPL. “We may accept crude parcels up to first week of April and invoke this clause in the contract that allows a buyer to stop contracted purchases in various conditions – medical emergency being one of them and we are amidst one,” he told TOI.
