India’s State Oil Officers Start Strike for Wages

By Archana Chaudhary

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- More than 50,000 employees of Indian Oil Corp. and other state-run oil companies started a strike for higher wages today, joining a nationwide truckers’ walkoff and potentially disrupting fuel supplies.

“The government hasn’t met our demands,” Sanjay Varshney, vice president of the Oil Sector Officers’ Association, said by telephone from New Delhi. “We are willing to talk with the government. We have close to 55,000 officers who have stayed away from work across 14 oil companies.”

The indefinite strike, which was called after the association said the wage increase announced by the government was less than expected, may compound the impact of a similar protest by truckers that entered its third day today. State-owned refiners are trying to ensure fuel supplies aren’t disrupted.

“Indian Oil is making sure that supplies to aviation services remain uninterrupted,” V.C. Agrawal, director of human resources at the country’s largest refiner, said today. “We are operating LPG plants, large depots and services.”

Oil & Natural Gas Corp., the country’s biggest exploration company, said there is some difficulty in managing large installations such as offshore units. Contingency plans are in place to ensure that work continues, ONGC said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“We are monitoring this and will take a decision on shutdowns accordingly if the strike continues,” A.K. Balyan, director of human resources at ONGC, said by telephone from New Delhi.

Gas Supplies

Natural gas supplies on the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline were shut after the strike started, the Press Trust of India reported, citing Gail India Ltd. Chairman U.D. Choubey.

The 2,800-kilometer (1,740-mile) pipeline is the largest owned by Gail, India’s monopoly natural-gas distributor. It starts at Hazira in western India and can carry 33 million cubic meters of gas to the north of the country.

“We have a problem because all ONGC operations are shutting down and that is affecting our supplies,” Santosh Kumar Vajpai, director of projects at Gail, said in a telephone interview from New Delhi. “Most of the gas we supply through the Hazira- Vajaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline is from ONGC. And at the moment, we aren’t getting the 32 million standard cubic meters of natural gas we get from them everyday.”

ONGC said supplies to the Gail pipeline hadn’t been stopped.

“I’m not sure if Gail had its own staff available to man the pipe and ensure supplies,” Gail’s Balyan said. “I have no report about any disruption from our side at the moment.”

Refinery Operations

Plants owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corp., the third-largest state-owned refiner, will be fully operational, Oil Secretary R.S. Pandey said yesterday.

Three of the 17 refineries owned by the state oil companies may be affected by the strike, Pandey said, without providing more details. Efforts are on to avert a stoppage in the three refineries, he said.

The strike by oil officers comes after more than 4 million truckers who haul a majority of India’s goods started a similar protest on Jan. 5, demanding that the government reduce fuel prices and waive toll charges for six months. The nationwide truckers strike may cause shortages and hamper transportation of food and manufactured products.

To contact the reporter on this story: Archana Chaudhary in Mumbai at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net.