WORLD : Nepalese Line Up to Buy Fuel
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KATMANDU, Nepal — Fearing that the Persian Gulf crisis will create new oil shortages in their Himalayan kingdom, Nepalese formed long lines today to buy fuel for their cars and homes.
With memories of the cutoff in oil supplies by neighboring India fresh in their minds, people started lining up for kerosene, the only source of cooking and heating fuel, as soon as dawn broke over the mountaintops.
Reports of rationing in India reached the Nepalese capital, and motorists today backed up in long lines at Nepal Oil Corp. facilities, the sole distributors of petroleum products in the Himalayan nation.
Housewives and children carrying plastic cans waited in the long lines even though an official of the state-owned NOC said the stock of kerosene is adequate to meet the country’s needs for a long time.
NOC buys crude oil from the gulf countries for hard currency but its counterpart in India, the Indian Oil Co., handles the delivery.
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