The Indian Embassy has asked Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to provide gasoline for its motor vehicles as local stations have run dry due to the blockade by India. It has written to NOC for 100-150 litres of fuel which is presently being rationed as the southern neighbour has stopped all shipments.  

NOC Managing Director Gopal Bahadur Khadka confirmed that they had received a letter from the Indian Embassy requesting it to issue gasoline. “Whether it is diplomatic missions or domestic companies, it is not possible to operate without fuel,” said Khadka. Khadka said that he had forwarded the letter to NOC’s distribution department with instructions to provide fuel to diplomatic missions in Kathmandu at the earliest. “However, I have not been informed if this has been done.”  

According to NOC, it has received written requests for gasoline from 16 diplomatic missions so far. They include the embassies or consulates of India, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar and Australia, among others.

“Each of them has asked for 100-150 litres of gasoline per week,” said an NOC official. As per the source, they have been asking NOC for fuel for the past week. They had written to NOC after the Commerce Ministry asked them to get in touch with the state-owned oil monopoly for their gasoline requirements. The country has been suffering from an acute fuel shortage for the last two weeks after India imposed “severe restrictions” on the passage of Nepal-bound cargo at customs points on the Nepal-India border.

Moreover, while NOC’s sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) used to reload an average of 350 tankers daily, it has been reloading only 10-20 tankers daily presently. The Indian authorities, citing security concerns due to the ongoing unrest in the Tarai plains, have been preventing oil tankers and trucks loaded with imported goods from crossing the border.