The fire of war broke out in the Middle East and its heat reached the petrol pumps of India. Rumors of oil shortage started spreading on social media, and at some places crowds gathered at the pumps. But the ground reality is that there is no shortage of oil in the country and Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand is also not untouched by this, oil is available in sufficient quantity here too.
Amarjeet Sethi, National Joint Secretary of Federation of All India Petroleum Traders, said clearly that there is no need to panic of any kind. Supply is normal and traders have adequate stock.
War spoiled the equation of international market
The real problem is not of shortage, but of prices. After the military attacks on the important energy infrastructure of Iran and Qatar, crude oil reached a dangerous level of $ 119 per barrel in the global market. The supply chain was badly affected and the pressure on oil companies increased.
The result of this pressure was that the country’s largest private fuel retailer company Nayara Energy increased the price of petrol by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 3 per liter and these new prices came into effect with immediate effect. In some states, petrol became costlier by Rs 5.30 per liter due to local VAT.
According to sources, Naira Energy, which is backed by Russian company Rosneft, has about 6,967 petrol pumps across the country. Unlike government companies, the government does not compensate them for their losses, hence the impact of the international market is directly reflected in their prices.
Currently relief at government pumps, but premium oil becomes expensive
It is a matter of some relief for the common man that the government oil companies IOCL and HPCL, which control 90 percent of the market, have not yet increased the prices of normal petrol and diesel.
But on March 20, they also increased the prices of premium petrol like XP95 and Power from Rs 2.09 to Rs 2.35 per liter, due to which their price reached close to Rs 113.77.
Traders appeal to ignore rumours.
Amarjeet Sethi says that such rumors create unnecessary panic in the market. When people come together to refill oil, temporary pressure definitely builds up on the pump and seeing this crowd, people feel that there is actually a shortage. Whereas in reality the stock is complete. His appeal is to fill the oil as per requirement, do not panic and go out with the canister and avoid sharing any unconfirmed news further.