Oil PSU officers defy court order to strike; supply unaffected

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

HPCL net loss narrows to Rs 137 crOil falls amid US economic recoveryIndianOil declares 1:1 bonusAfter Mittal, Total quits $10-bn Vizag refinery

New Delhi: Officers in 13 oil PSUs on Wednesday defied high court orders to go on an indefinite strike, forcing shutdown of nation’s largest gas field and impacting operations in four key refineries but fuel supplies were unaffected.

South Bassein gas field in western offshore was the first casualty, with executives in Oil and Natural Gas Corp and gas transporter GAIL India cutting supplies to power and fertiliser units even before the strike began at 0600 hrs.

Crude oil production from Mumbai offshore fields was down to 242,000 barrels per day from 342,000 bpd, while 44 million standard cubic meters per day of gas was not in production. The well-thought out methodology was repeated at Indian Oil Corp’s Panipat, Mathura, Koyali and Haldia refineries that have a combined capacity of 39 million tonne, with officers starting the shutdown of the units last night.

However, refineries of Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum as well as standalone units at Chennai, Kochi, Mangalore and in the North Eastern states functioned normally. Senior management and Territorial Army was deployed to refuel airplanes at airports and the same combination ensured that petrol pumps and gas depots did not go dry.

“Fuel supplies are normal. There is no impact. We have stocks of 15-20 days, so we need not worry on that count," petroleum secretary R S Pandey said. With several states invoking Esma, Oil Sector Officers Association leadership, which has given the strike call to press for higher wages, went into hiding to avoid arrest and its president Amit Kumar did not answer calls on his mobile phone fearing that his location might be revealed. But speaking from an unlisted number, he said “the strike is total in all oil PSUs except HPCL."

The hiding, however, did not stop the managements from suspending 17 OSOA office-bearers including 11 from ONGC and three each from IOC and GAIL. “We have not been able to serve them the suspension notice as they are in hiding," an official said.