Kamal Ghorui
LUCKNOW: Even as the state level coordinator (SLC) of oil marketing companies (OMCs) continues to maintain that the supply of petroleum products in Uttar Pradesh is “completely normal and under control”, a comparison of two official statements issued on April 6 and April 27, points to emerging pressure in the system—particularly in LPG logistics—alongside a sharp rise in petrol demand.On April 6, the SLC Sanjay Bhandari stated that petrol average daily availability stood at 1.6 crore liters of petrol and 3 crore liters of diesel. By April 27, this had increased to 2 crore liters daily in petrol, indicating a sharp rise in demand within just three weeks. Diesel supply also rose to 3.3 crore liters per day, reinforcing the trend of higher fuel consumption.“The state with 13,168 operational retail outlets supported by 28 supply depots, is stable in fuel situation with retail supply matching normal consumption trends,” read a statement issued by SLC.Similarly, the SLC continued to project confidence in stock availability of LPG, but the segment revealed a more concerning shift. On April 6, distributors were holding around 1.5 days of stock, while OMCs were delivering an average of 8.7 lakh LPG refills per day. The backlog of pending LPG refills stood at about 4.5 days.By April 27, distributor-level stock holding had fallen to 1.3 days. At the same time, average daily LPG deliveries dropped to about 8 lakh refills.More notably, the backlog of pending LPG refills increased to about 6 days, indicating slower clearance despite continued daily monitoring and prioritisation of essential sectors such as hospitals, defence, railways, and food processing units.Though the SLC Sanjay Bhandari reiterated that LPG supply remained “completely stable” and that a 68% present allocation level for commercial LPG was being maintained as per govt of India guidelines.On Monday the SLC statement also carried a stronger public appeal, specifically urging residents of several border and eastern UP districts including Siddharth Nagar, Maharajganj, Bahraich, Ballia, Balrampur, Kushinagar, Basti, and Lakhimpur Kheri, not to panic or over-purchase and not to fall for rumours, an emphasis that was less pronounced in the April 6 communication.
