NOC finally cleans its hands from loss

After running into losses for years, the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has finally succeeded to bring its losses to nil.

NOC spokesperson Ichhya Bikram Thapa said the corporation didn't incur any loss in petroleum business in the months of January and February.

"We have the loss of Rs 263 per cylinder in LP Gas while we make profit of Rs 18 per litre in aviation fuel. This has balanced our business. In other products, we don't have any loss," he told Nepalnews Tuesday.

NOC supplies over 8,000 tons of LPG and 6,500 kl of aviation fuel per month.

The price of the POL products has continuously dropped in the international market for the last two months. On Monday, crude oil prices dipped as low as US$ 58.91 per barrel in Singapore market. The price had dropped to US$ 55 per barrel earlier month. In October last year, the prices had jumped to US$ 68 .

However, according to Thapa, the drop in POL prices in the Indian market would not have any impact on Nepali market. Recently, the Government of India had announced price cut by Rs 2 in per litre petrol and Re 1 in diesel.

"We pay prices according to the international market, internal price cut does not have anything to do with our business," Thapa said.

The total loss of the NOC reached well over Rs 10 billion in the last eight years, more than half of which is due to be paid to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole supplier of the POL products to Nepal. nepalnews.com ia Feb 20 07