Jio-bp has capped diesel sales at 50 litres per customer per day at its petrol pumps amid the West Asia war, four people aware of the matter, including dealers, said.
The move to cap diesel sales will impact supplies to transporters, including fleet operators running long-haul trucks and buses. Jio-bp, a joint venture between Reliance Industries and UK-based bp, has about 2,000 retail pumps across the country. Effective 1 April, the company has, for the first time, imposed a monthly fuel procurement quota on pumps, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.
A similar cap has been imposed on petrol sales. However, since customers typically buy petrol in smaller quantities, the limit has not impacted sales, pump dealers said.
"There is a nozzle lock which has been activated in the past few days across machines. Now, these machines cannot dispense more than 50 litres of diesel at one go. The most impacted are the large trucks and buses, which usually fuel up to 300-350 litres at one go for long-haul journeys," said the first of the four people mentioned above.
Other private fuel retailers, including Nayara Energy and Shell, have already raised prices in recent months. Reliance Industries is also India’s largest exporter of petroleum products.
A dealer operating Jio-bp pumps said, "About 30% of diesel sales have dropped in the past few days due to the limit on sales. A quota has also been imposed on monthly fuel procurement by pumps. It differs from pump to pump based on each pump's monthly sales. It has been set at a lower level compared to February sales for every pump; the rate of decline is different for every pump."
Another pump dealer said that his outlet has been allowed to offtake 210 kilolitres of fuel, including both petrol and diesel, in April, lower than the pump's pre-war overall offtake and sales of 290 kilolitres in February. Similarly, a third dealer has been given a quota of 310 kilolitres, compared to 390 kilolitres in February.
In response to an email query from Mint, a Jio-BP statement said: "All Jio-bp Mobility Stations are fully operational to serve customers and are stocked. We continue to offer our high-performance Active Technology Petrol and Diesel, which provide higher mileage at no extra cost, ensuring greater value for our customers. There is no mandate that limits the amount of fuel dispensed to customers. Our commitment has been, and continues to be, to provide refuelling services to every customer who visits Jio-bp.”
Queries emailed to Reliance Industries remained unanswered.
Supply disruptions
Although global energy supplies have been disrupted by the war in West Asia and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for global oil trade, India has said the crude and fuel stock situation in the country is comfortable. In a statement on Thursday, the petroleum ministry said: "All refineries are operating at high capacity with adequate crude inventories, while sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel are being maintained."
Mint earlier reported that, even though the Centre announced the resumption of fuel supplies to petrol pump dealers on credit by state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), retailers claim that the OMCs continue to dispatch fuel only after advance payments, and in some places, credit facilities are now provided for a day's period.
Earlier, OMCs used to provide fuel to retailers on a revolving credit policy, under which supplies were sourced for up to 5 days and payments were made later. Mint earlier reported that amid high oil prices and a supply squeeze due to the war, the OMCs halted supplies on credit to fuel retailers as an indirect way to suppress demand.
While oil marketing companies have kept regular petrol and diesel prices unchanged, they have raised premium fuel prices in line with rising global oil prices.