Refill demand has jumped more than 200 per cent since the lockdown

India has enough petrol, diesel and cooking gas LPG in stocks to last way beyond the three-week nationwide lockdown, Indian Oil Corporation, IOC, Chairman Sanjiv Singh said.

He said customers should not resort to panic booking of LPG refills. He said that the IOC has mapped demand for all fuel for entire April and beyond and IOC refineries are operating at levels enough to meet all of the demand.

The nationwide lockdown has shut businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and brought almost the entire vehicular movement to a halt. This has impacted fuel demand with petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel registering fall in demand.

With most cars and two-wheelers going off the road, petrol demand has fallen by 8 per cent in March while diesel demand has been down 16 per cent. ATF demand has fallen by 20 per cent. However, LPG consumption has been growing.

The IOC chairman said that refill demand saw more than 200 per cent jump since the lockdown was announced.

On March 26, the Union government announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore package to deal with hardships caused by the lockdown. This involved giving free foodgrain and 3 LPG cylinders from April to June to poor. IOC supplies to nearly half of the total 27.59 crore active LPG customers.

For the past 10 days, the IOC has been delivering on an average 25 lakh cylinders every day to the doorsteps of its customers. All state-run fuel retailers together deliver about 52 lakh refills throughout the country.



Courtesy: All India Radio