Disel Shortage Hit Indusrties
With the industries here going out without power for at least two hours every day apart from the weekly power holiday, the use of generator sets has also shot up. The units, however, face the additional problem of shortage in availability of high speed diesel oil to run the sets. Says K. Illango, president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association: “An industry that was buying about 12,000 litres of diesel on alternate months directly from the oil company earlier, now finds it difficult to get the same quantity of diesel.The oil companies give various reasons, but industries are unable to get adequate quantity of diesel (in bulk) even if they have storage facility. Any unit that has 500 KVA or higher capacity generator sets must have been buying diesel in bulk directly from the companies. Now, there is a shortage even for those who were already buying,” “If this situation continues, and if there is an incremental usage of generator sets, what is the solution for the industries,” he asks. “If diesel is not available, we only have to shutdown at times of power cut and keep the workers idle,” he observes. Mr. Illango says the oil companies should come out with a system to meet the demands of the industry.
Sources in petroleum corporations said they had a systematic assessment of the demand, based on the indents received. The product was procured based on the requirement forecast.The supply for industrial use was dealt with separately since the huge off-take by industries should not lead to scarcity in the retail market. There was sudden spurt in diesel consumption by industries because of the power disruptions and the corporations were taken by surprise at the increasing demand. Because of the energy efficiency and cost factor, more industries were switching over to diesel from fuels such as Low Sulphuric Heavy Stock (LSHS) and Low Speed Diesel Oil (LSD) thus increasing the demand for diesel.
With the industrial fuel not having major subsidy, petroleum corporations would not be reluctant or deny supply. It could be due to temporary reasons such as availability. The industries could always approach the corporations with their regular projected requirement so that the latter could provide adequate stocks, the sources said.
