MRL director (operations) NK Sinha said the company will be in "deep trouble" if the strike by the mooring crew in force since August 30 was not resolved fast. The throughput in the refinery, with a capacity to process 3.7 million tonnes of crude per annum, has been reduced to 60 per cent owing to the strike, Sinha said. "We are trying to keep the refinery going as much as possible. But if the strike situation continues, there will be no alternative but to shut down the refinery and this will be a costly one," Sinha said.

According to him, three tankers each carrying 60,000 tonnes of crude are waiting to dock at the port. Last time when there was a strike at the port, MRL diverted one of its ships to the Vizag port. Thistime around MRL is hoping that the strike would be called off at least by Monday.

But for MRL things are looking bleak. One or two more vessels are scheduled to come in in the next couple of days at Chennai port. Sinha said his discussions with CPT chairman and managing director S Machendranathan were not promising. The port authorities think the demands being made by the striking mooring crew are `unreasonable.'

Sinha said MRL had already written a letter to IOC which is its foreshore terminal manager and contacted the Oil Coordinating Committee. The OCC however has expressed its helplessness to come to MRL's rescue.

MRL has even sent a copy of OCC's letter to chief secretary of Tamil Nadu and to the secretary of the surface transport ministry pointing out that unless the government intervened to resolve the problem, MRL would be forced to shut down its Manali refinery. According to Sinha, in case of a shutdown, MRL will suffer 8 days to 10 days loss in production and this in value terms could be Rs 15crore to 20 crore. Moreover, the shutdown will also seriously affect supply of petrol, LPG, diesel and kerosene to the market.

This will aggravate the already short supply scenario of these items in the market because of the routine shutdown already from first week of August of MRL's old refinery at Manali with a capacity of 2.8 million tonnes per annum.

According to Sinha, MRL chairman and managing director V Shyam Sunder is in Delhi trying to talk to surface transport ministry and petroleum ministry officials and finding a way to resolve the problem soon. CPT chairman Machendranathan is also reported to have gone to Mumbai in an effort to talk to authorities there and find out ways of ending the impasse. As of now, however, the union representing the mooring crew at CPT has hardened its stand and is bargaining hard for an additional pay hike and other benefits to its crew including adding a further 60 workers to the mooring work.