New Delhi, Jan 07: Seventeen oil sector officers --
11 from ONGC and three each from IOC and GAIL -- have been
suspended and two ONGC officers arrested for participating in
a strike that had been prohibited by the higher judiciary,
according to Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey.
Home Minister P Chidambaram reviewed the situation
arising out of the strikes by oil sector executives and
truckers with a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary, Petroleum
Secretary and Transport Secretary.
The strike call, by officers of 13 oil PSUs on Wednesday to
press for a wage hike, has affected operations in only four
refineries with air services by and large remaining normal,
while oil companies have stocked themselves up for 15-20 days.
Oil companies' executives today defied High Court orders
and went on indefinite strike, leading to a shutdown of gas
supplies from the country's largest fields and cutting of
output at key refineries.
"The strike is total in all oil PSUs except Hindustan
Petroleum. The strike began at 06:00 hrs," Oil Sector Officers
Association (OSOA) President Amit Kumar said here.
The strike resulted in a shutdown of ONGC's South Bassein
and its satellite fields in the western offshore and privately
operated Panna Mukta and Tapti Fields. South Bassein produces
29 million standard cubic metres per day and Panna Mukta and
Tapti another 15-16 mmscmd.
However, the Uran processing plant of ONGC in Maharashtra
continued to operate, receiving 12-13 mmscmd gas from Bombay
High and the Neelam and Heera field.
"Gas supply pressure from ONGC fields started reducing
from 02:30 hrs and came to a grinding halt at 06:00 hrs, forcing
us to cut supplies on HVJ," GAIL Chairman U D Choubey said.
"GAIL is maintaining supplies to the priority sector from the
volumes already available in the pipeline," he added.
Notice was issued to the officers' union of Oil and
Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on a contempt petition filed by the
company for giving strike warning despite court restraint
being in place. The Guwahati High Court restrained officers of
Oil India.
Officers of Oil and Natural Gas Corp stopped natural gas
supplies from the country's largest field in Mumbai offshore,
forcing a shutdown of the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline.
ONGC also stopped most of the gas supplies from privately
operated Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields as the fuel from these
passes through its processing units and pipelines. Only 1.5
million standard cubic metres of 18 mmscmd was being supplied.
The strike was most visible in ONGC, Amit Kumar's parent
firm, while it has no impact in HPCL. Indian Oil Corp's
operations at four of its refineries were impacted.
"Aviation services are working normally. Our petrol pumps
are also operating normally," IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria
said. But the Haldia refinery was completely shut down while
its Panipat, Mathura and Koyali refineries were in the
'cooling down' phase -- a process before the units are
completely shut down.
"In Haldia, all units are being shut down but at the
other three refineries some units will operate," a company
official said.
"The petrol pumps and depots have stocks for 2-3 days. We
have to see if loading and dispatching are impacted," Behuria
said.
IOC deploys Territorial Army at airports
The country's largest fuel refiner,
Indian Oil Corporation, has called in the Territorial Army
personnel for refilling of jet fuel (ATF) at the Mumbai and
Delhi airports.
"We have deployed Territorial Army (TA) personnel to
refill aviation turbine fuel (ATF) at both Mumbai and Delhi
airports," an IOC spokesperson said here today.
The TA personnel have been deployed in the wake of strike
by around 55,000 officers from 13 oil PSUs associated with the
OSOA over non-revision of
wages that was due from January 1, 2007.
Strike affects aviation services
National carrier Air India's domestic operation was affected on Wednesday in the wake of the ongoing strike.
"Four Air India domestic flights were delayed due to the ongoing strike," Air India spokesperson said.
There was an average 25 to 30 minutes delay in the flights, the spokesperson said.
However, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson said that flight operations at the Mumbai airport were by and large normal.
Jet Airways had also made all arrangements at its end, so that it was not affected due to the strike, its CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schuaer had said in a statement yesterday.
Vijay Mallya-owned private airline, Kingfisher Airlines, had said that it was monitoring the situation closely but was fully prepared to deal with the situation.
"We do not anticipate any immediate impact on the proposed strike and all flights will operate as per schedule," a Kingfisher Airlines statement said.
Bureau Report