India State Oil Company Workers Dispute Creates Fuel Shortages (Update 2)
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 08 January 2009 |
|
New Dehli faces the prospect of fuel shortages over the coming days as state oil company workers went on strike. Dealer sites throughout India have remained opened.
Federation of All India Petroleum Traders General Secretary Ajay Bansal
said, ``we support all genuine demands of oil sector officers
association (OSOA) who are going on strike since Wednesday. But we
are not joining them. Our petrol pumps would remain open. ``
There were reports that many service stations were close to running
out of stock. The petroleum traders federation said one in every four
service stations in New Delhi had gone dry as most service stations
were maintaining low stocks in anticipation of a fuel cut announcement.
There was further bad news as talks between the striking oil officers
and the government broke down late Wednesday, ending hopes of an
early resolution to the dispute. The oil officers are demanding higher
wages.
Ashok Badhwar, president of Federation of All India Petroleum Traders
said all service stations in the New Dehli area could soon run out of
fuel if the dispute was note ended quickly. `The strike has already led
to almost 100 service stations out of the 413 in Delhi going dry,'' he
added.
PetrolWorld 070109
|
