Indian Oil will increase fuel supplies to Nepal
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer, today said it will increase petroleum supplies to Nepal a day after the neighbouring nation signed a deal with China for supply of petroleum products to tide over acute fuel shortages caused by the blockage of land routes from India due to protests.
“We have a four decade old agreement with Nepal. Supplies have come down in the past month as a few of the routes are blocked. We are continuing to supply to them and are hopeful of increasing supplies once the protests subside,” IOC Chairman and Managing Director B Ashok said on the sidelines of an oil industry conference here.
Asked how big is the concern over loss of business volumes to China, Ashok said: “Lets’s wait and watch.”
IOC supplies around 1.5 million tonne of petroleum products worth around an estimated Rs 9,000 crore annually to Nepal. This includes petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG transported in tank trucks from IOC’s refineries to Nepalese depots across the border. According to reports, China has agreed to meet around a third of Nepal’s fuel demand to begin with.
Disruption in fuel supply from India began following a dispute between Madhesi parties and major national parties over Nepal’s new constitution.
On Monday, an eight-member Nepali delegation had reached Beijing to discuss the modalities of fuel supply. The same day, Chinese foreign ministry announced China would help Nepal as a friendly neighbour to “relieve its shortage of fuel supply”.
Beijing has agreed to send about 1,000 tonnes of fuel in grant and has signed an MoU with Nepal Oil Corporation for a long term commercial deal. NOC is making arrangements to bring the supplies to Kathmandu over the weekend.
