Many petrol bunks run out of stock in delta districts after surge in sales

Several retail fuel outlets in urban areas in delta districts such as Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, and Mayiladuthurai ran out of stock on Thursday in view of panic buying by motorists.

Despite a similar scenario in the sale of diesel, the retail units were left with some quantity of diesel as residual stock as a majority of local private diesel commercial vehicle service operators have accumulated required stock for their operations for about a week, according to petrol bunk operators.

Rush towards petrol bunks peaked on Thursday morning in the urban pockets of Delta districts with two-wheeler riders flocking the petrol bunks in large numbers following the reports about a “possible fuel shortage” in the near future that spread through social media platforms citing a ‘grim’ situation in major cities in the State supported with visuals of long queue of vehicles at the fuel stations in Chennai and other major cities.

Interestingly, there were not many three-wheelers such as autorickshaws at petrol bunks though they were seen plying on the roads as usual. Asked about this, a petrol pump operator said “those regular customers” were already alerted and sufficient stock of fuel had been provided to them in plastic cans after filling up the tanks in their vehicles.

Normally, private service providers such as earthmovers, harvesters, tour operators, packers and movers who did not have fossil fuel retailing as additional business would purchase the required fuel in plastic cans and drums to keep them as stock to meet any exigency, they pointed out.

Meanwhile, many men and women were seen buying petrol in big plastic cans of five to 20 litres at many fuel outlets in Thanjavur on Thursday morning.

However, in some rural pockets such as Thiruthuraipoondi, Vedaranyam, and others there was not much of panic buying. However, some of the petrol bunks near Velankanni had run out of stock, locals said.