The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the country’s sole oil importer, has indicated that the fuel crisis facing the country may further worsen in the days to come, but said it might be averted if the government agrees to bear the current monthly losses of the corporation which stands at Rs 254 million or increases the oil prices immediately to deal with the situation.

According to reports, the NOC currently has stocks to meet only two day’s demand, the lowest in NOC’s history, even as most private petrol pumps in the Kathmandu valley have already gone dry three days back. Long queues of vehicles in front of refilling station have again started to become a normal sight in Kathmandu these days which has been reeling under this crisis from the past three months.

Further compounding this situation, the Himalayan Times reported that oil import from India would be completely halted for the next three days mainly due to the closure of custom points, as Bihar is conducting municipal polls from today.

Bishwo Nath Goyal, general manager of state owned NOC, has been telling the media for the past some time that the only option left to bail the country out from this tremendous fuel crisis is to guarantee additional funds to cover the monthly loss of NOC and clear mounting dues it owes to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole supplier of petroleum products to NOC, which stands at Rs 6 billion. Furthermore, NOC is yet to settle Rs 4 billion it owes to local banks. NOC had earlier pledged to pay Rs 240 million every month to the IOC for latter’s assurance to maintain a smooth flow of fuel supply. But as NOC failed to fulfill its commitment, IOC had imposed restriction on the supply of petroleum products to Nepal since the past few weeks, reducing the normal daily supply by almost half.