A petrol pump in Kasba that ran dry on Thursday evening. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

The indefinite nation-wide strike called by officers of 13 oil companies triggered panic buying at petrol pumps across the city on Thursday and caused many to run dry by late evening. With the sales figure at most pumps jumping by around 25 per cent, long car queues were the order of the day and ‘no entry’ the order of the night.

“More than 30 per cent of the pumps have gone dry in Calcutta and its neighbourhood. There will be a severe crisis by Friday noon if the strike continues,” said Joydeb Sarkar, the general secretary of West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association.

Out of 2,000-odd petrol pumps in the state, the city has 375 and most of these draw their supplies from oil depots at Mourigram, Budge Budge, Rajbandh and Haldia. With officers striking work to press for higher wages, no tanker moved out of these depots on Thursday. Motorists were stumped as several Indian Oil, BPCL and IBP pumps ran dry.

HPCL depots were the only exception as its officers haven’t joined the strike. There are about 400 HPCL pumps in Bengal with a depot in Haldia and a company official said supplies from Visakhapatnam and Mumbai refineries could be stepped up to meet the spurt in demand.

The public transport system in the city would be crippled on Friday, warned members of several transport organisations. Both bus and taxi operators feared a 30-50 per cent drop in the number of vehicles on the road over the weekend. On Thursday, around 10 morning flights out of Calcutta were delayed because of late arrival of jet fuel tankers. Some airline operators said that the strike would hit the supply of air turbine fuel.

But in Delhi, the Union petroleum ministry ruled out the possibility of shortage in supply of air turbine fuel. Though supply of other petroleum products dipped across the country, the government did not blink. Petroleum secretary R.S. Pandey said 64 ONGC officers would be sacked and three IOC officers dismissed for joining the strike declared “illegal” by Delhi High Court. Indian Oil Officers Association’s general secretary, Tanmay Chatterjee, based at IOC’s Haldia refinery, was suspended on Thursday.

The districts of Bengal were hit hard with 60 to 65 per cent of petrol pumps running dry in East and West Midnapore, Murshidabad and Nadia. In north Bengal, the majority of pumps ran dry and officials of the West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association warned that petrol and diesel would not be available in the six north Bengal district from Friday.

Home secretary Ardhendu Sen has convened an emergency meeting of the petroleum dealers on Friday morning.