IndianOil, HPC row over LPG supply
Kochi   08-Oct-2012

The crisis in LPG bulk supply and retail distribution in Kerala has snowballed into a rift between two major oil companies IndianOil and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd(HPCL).

The crisis originated in the backdrop of the oil tanker accident at Chala near Kannur last month that claimed 21 lives, and the subsequent demand by the public and enforcement agencies that the LPG tankers should be allowed to move on the roads only with adequate safety precautions.

The HPCL has now declined to resume bulk LPG supplies to IndianOil's Kochi bottling plant from its (HPC's) LPG import facility at Mangalore.

The IndianOil has alleged that this has reduced supply of bulk LPG stocks to its Kochi plant. It has now taken up the matter with HPCL's headquarters in Mumbai so that supply can be resumed at the earliest.

However, when contacted HPC officials in Mangalore said all that they have done was to insist that the LPG tankers heading for Kerala must take safety precautions like posting a spare driver and a helper. "We cannot load the tankers if they don't meeting the security conditions as that would amount to negligence," a top official at HPCL's LPG import facility at Mangalore told TOI here over the phone.

According to sources, a tangential beneficiary of the dispute could be the tanker operators as IndianOil has decided to source LPG to Kerala from Chennai which, though, may take transportation costs up. The private LPG terminal in Mangalore also stands to gain as the IndianOil has decided to source more bulk LPG supply from them.

An IndianOil spokesman said the company was sourcing LPG supplies from Chennai and the private import facility at Mangalore to ensure that customers in Kerala are not put to hardship "even if it would pinch our pockets".