Panic buying continues, Vidarbha guzzles double the quota amid fuel crisis

Nagpur: Consumers in Vidarbha continued to buy almost more than double their normal quota of petrol even on Wednesday — the second day of the fuel crisis. Diesel sales are expected to be one-and-half times higher than the daily average.

By this count, as much as 6,000 kilolitres (KL) of petrol and 10,000 KL of diesel were sold on Wednesday too, said sources in govt oil marketing companies. Private player Nayara Energy, a private player with Russian stake, hiked rates of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3/litre respectively. This comes at a time when oil companies are faced with shrinking margins due to crude prices flaring. Govt oil companies have so far only hiked rates of premium fuel by Rs 2.


A price hike for petrol and diesel by Nayara is expected to further raise the load on public sector oil companies, where fuel is still cheaper, say dealers. Nayara has a depot in Wardha which caters to govt oil companies apart from pumps in the region, including two in the city. Private players, which include Reliance and Nayara, are estimated to have 10% market share in Vidarbha, say sources.

Even as figures for Thursday's sales are yet to be compiled, the companies expect to record as much as 80% additional sales as compared to the average. This is despite appeals by the Nagpur district collector Vipin Itankar to restrain panic buying.

The normalcy did not last long on Thursday. By afternoon, three pumps near Manewada and Ayodhya Nagar shut down. The word spread and soon there were queues in front of other pumps, and many went dry, said the president of Federation of Maharashtra Petroleum Dealers Association (FAMPEDA), Amit Gupta.

Gupta said the depots are working on extended hours following directions by respective district administrations, but payment terms continue to slow down lifting of stock. As the dealers were unable to deposit cash in banks due to a holiday on account of Ram Navami, the advance payment could not be made to oil companies. Even on Thursday, only those dealers whose payments had reached the company were able to lift stock, he said. Following the West Asia conflict, oil companies have made advance payment mandatory, doing away with liberal credit system.

Dealers would continue facing problems in making advance payments in coming days due to the weekend, and accounts closing on March-end, said Gupta.

Replenishment of depots, on the other hand, continued to remain normal. Nayara Energy, which caters to oil companies in Nagpur through its depot at Wardha, has extended working hours till evening following directions by the district administration. Sources in the Railways said, three to four rakes of petroleum wagons are reaching Nagpur every day even before the crisis began. There has been no cut in the rake movement. Each rake has 50 to 52 wagons of petroleum products, which is enough to keep depots in the region full.