Crude situation in country now under control: IOC chairman

Mumbai, July 8 (UNI) Indian Oil Corporation Chairman Sarthak Behuria today said thanks to the recent hike in prices of petroleum products, the situation of crude supply in the country has somehow come under control.

Mr Behuria further said he expects that the situation could be brought under full control, if the Rangarajan Committee report was implemented by the Central Government, in toto.

After inaugurating the first comprehensive automated retail facility at the Indian Oil's local petrol station here, the IOC chief told UNI that, ''It was worrying as the oil companies in the country were incurring losses on each of their products''. There was a gap of nearly Rs 3-4 on price of each litre of petrol, and of Rs 6-7 in the case of diesel. The condition was more alarming in the case of kerosene and LPG, for which the oil companies were compelled to incur losses to the tune of Rs 22 per litre and Rs 120 per refill, respectively, he mentioned.

He said the international affairs in countries like Iran, Nigeria and other oil producing ones were having an impact on the global oil prices. He revealed that the oil prices in the international market, which was nearly US dollar 70 per barrel until a month ago, had recently gone up USD 2-3 per barrel.

He said the IBP's merger with IOC, which has been approved by the Centre in recent past, was already under progress and the complete process would take 2-3 months. However, he maintained that a separate brand identity of the IBP would be maintained by the IOC, even after the merger was over.

Incidentally, the Centre had hiked the prices of various petroleum products in the country a month back, thus, partly implementing the recommendations made by the Rangarajan Committee.

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