KOCHI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), marketing the Indane brand of LPG, has assured its customers in Kerala that the supply of LPG in the State has improved and its bottling plants expect adequate bulk supplies during the current week. The assurance comes in the wake of disruption in bulk supply of LPG from Mangalore owing to law and order problems there.

A senior official of the IOC said here on Tuesday that as normal bulk supplies were being restored, the backlog would be cleared within a week to 10 days by working the bottling plants extra hours and on holidays. There was no need for Indane customers to panic, he said. There was a supply backlog of 1,000 tonnes in the State, the official said. However, Indian Oil was making all out efforts to clear the backlog and customers were requested not to resort to panic booking as this would hinder efforts to bring the situation back to normal. IOC was making extra efforts to clear the backlog in some areas in the State that have been more seriously affected than the others.

Strike at refinery

The IOC official pointed out that the receipt of bulk LPG supplies at Indane bottling plants in Kerala was also affected last month as a result of a strike in Kochi refinery that was now part of Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The situation was returning to normalcy when the law and order problem arose in Mangalore.

About 40 per cent of the bulk supplies for Kerala comes from Mangalore while the rest of the LPG is sourced from Kochi refinery. The two-hour curfew relaxation in Mangalore was being used to get the bulk supplies across to Kerala, said the IOC official.

Indian Oil Corporation is the leading player in Kerala with a market share of more than 50 per cent and a total of 26.5 lakh LPG connections. The Corporation operates three bottling plants in Kerala — Kochi, Kollam and Kozhikode — catering to the various regions in the State.

LPG for auto use

Meanwhile, there is significant increase in the sale of unsubsidised commercial LPG in the State. The IOC official said that the sale of unsubsidised LPG by the company had climbed to 1,400 tonnes a month compared to 300 tonnes two years ago. During last year, the sale was around 600 tonnes a month.

The rise in the use of unsubsidised LPG in the automobile sector has largely been attributed to the relatively free availability of LPG for auto use across the State and also to the intense drive by various agencies, including the gas marketing companies, against the use of subsidised LPG in the automotive sector.

The Motor Vehicles Department and the District administration had last year swung into action against the use of subsidised LPG in passenger cars and other vehicles.

The IOC official said that 12 more LPG outlets for auto sector would be opened by the company by the end of this year. Three of these outlets are expected to be operation in the next week, he added. About two years ago this facility was not available.

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