Kathmandu, February 7
With the Birgunj customs reopened, Nepali people hope the shortages of petroleum products, including cooking gas, will end sooner than later.
Amid this rising optimism, Nepal Oil Corporation, the country’s oil monopoly tasked with import and distribution of petroleum products, has indicated that much depends on the attitude of India, the sole supplier of petroleum products to Nepal.
On Saturday, Indian Oil Corporation did not provide petrol and diesel through its Raxaul depot. Taking a cue from this incident, NOC officials do not believe the IOC will supply oil as per Nepal’s demand.
“Sunday is a public holiday in India. Based on loading that IOC gives us, we will draw a conclusion on Monday on how and what quantities of oil and cooking gas we can bring in from India,” Sushil Bhattarai, acting executive director of the NOC, told Onlinekhabar.
After completing due processes, we will ask India to supply required volumes of oil and cooking gas. But they have an upper hand on the volumes and process of supplying petroleum products,” he said, adding: We should not be distrustful. Oil procurement is a technical process as well. Let’s wait and see what happens on Monday.
During the Indian blockade, NOC shifted the entry point for oil tankers and gas bullets from Birgunj, NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Ghimire said. We are dispatching a letter to the IOC about new arrangements, he said.
The NOC hopes loading will begin from Raxaul and oil and cooking gas consignments will enter Nepal via Birgunj once the IOC responds to the NOC letter.
In the past too, we used to rely heavily on Raxaul. For ending the shortages, we will have to rely on Raxaul this time around too,” Ghimire said. “A plan to increase oil import is already in place. If the situation turns favourable, we can gradually reduce the shortages.”
According to the NOC, current import of gas and oil accounts for only 35 per cent of the demand. The demand will soar now, Ghimire said.
