The second day of the indefinite strike by officers of oil PSUs began affecting normal life in the metros on Thursday. But the Government refused to budge, and the Petroleum Ministry sought the help of state governments to arrest leaders of the striking Oil Sector Officers’ Association (OSOA).

Late night talks between OSOA and Government representatives including Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, at IOC Colony, Noida failed around 1 a.m. “It was too late. Talks remained inconclusive,” said Sarthak Behuria, chairman, Indian Oil Corp. (IOC)

Several pumps ran out of petrol and diesel, including some in the national capital (See Express Newsline). Mumbai ran out of compressed natural gas on which some 2 lakh local buses, taxis and autos run. Some flights were delayed following delays in refuelling aircraft because of the absence of officers, mainly from IOC and Bharat Petroleum.

There will be no supply of piped gas to 3.5 lakh domestic consumers in Mumbai from tomorrow. Public transport in Delhi will come to a halt on Saturday when the city exhausts its stocks of CNG.

“We have been managing the situation till now, but there are supply constraints,” Behuria said, adding, “we might see dryouts from tomorrow.”

Deora’s statement on Wednesday announcing a likely cut in petrol and diesel prices, hastened the dryout of pumps. Dealers went slow on lifting stocks for fear of losing heavily if prices fell soon after.

Four of IOC’s seven refineries remained shut on Thursday, including Mathura and Panipat that feed the northern region. With the Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline also switched off, the region will start facing a major crunch in cooking gas cylinders. Officers did not turn up to man LPG bottling plants for the second day, and workers refused to load cylinders on trucks. The wait period for a gas cylinder has already reached seven days.

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