Bottlenecks surrounding oxygen supply continue to hinder the treatment of Covid-19 patients, drawing the ire of high court judges, who stepped in to deliberate on ways to smoothen the crucial supply chain. With demand skyrocketing, oxygen producers as well as steelmakers and oil refiners have ramped up capacity. The country is producing sufficient oxygen to meet current needs, they said. Demand for medical oxygen is around 7,500 tonnes a day currently, while production — including that of industries — is at 9,200 tonnes. A few companies producing the life-saving gas are even stuck with excess inventory. JSW Group’s Parth Jindal told ET the company is producing around 1,200 tonnes of oxygen a day, of which only 900 tonnes are being transported due to the lack of transit options. “There is enough oxygen in India; the challenge is transportation. Oxygen tankers are just not available,” Jindal rued.82397377“The other issue is that these oxygen tankers can only travel at 30 km per hour because of safety concerns… it’s a combustible gas. You need many more cylinders and many more tankers plying all the time,” said Jindal of JSW.Jindal’s view was seconded by Siddharth Jain, director, Inox Air Products Ltd, India’s second largest independent oxygen manufacturer. “Manufacturing oxygen is the easiest,” he said. “But delivering is the issue; the problem lies with the supply chain. The supply is very tight in Delhi because it isn’t an industrial state. I think in the next two to three days oxygen issues should ease out, if the case rise is at the same level as of today.”There are other challenges too. “Several of our drivers are also down with Covid-19. We are giving them all the support we can, but that also hampers the delivery on a large scale,” Jain said.Transportation, Shortages A ChallengeTransporting the oxygen to hospitals remains the biggest challenge. At the heart of the issue is a shortage of cryogenic containers as well as cylinders — into which oxygen is filled — for the purpose of transportation.Meanwhile, blanket orders to stop supply of oxygen to industries has unwittingly hampered supply. Cylinder makers, for instance, find themselves in a Catch-22 situation. Two of the largest manufacturers of oxygen cylinders — Everest Kanto Cylinder and Rama Cylinders — have stopped production for the past two days due to a shortage of oxygen, as supplies meant for the industry have been diverted for medical usage. The companies need about 2 tonnes of oxygen a day each to continue manufacturing operations.“We are requesting everybody in the government to allocate a consistent supply of oxygen to enable us to run the factory and manufacture cylinders that are needed,” said an executive at the listed Everest Kanto.Authorities face the hard choice of whether to allocate oxygen for manufacturing more cylinders or to focus on hospitals sending out SOS as supplies dry up. The situation has been worsened due to the reported panic hoarding of cylinders by the public.There is also a shortage of large cryogenic containers that can ferry oxygen in liquid state. Jindal Steel and Power said most of its oxygen was being sent to Delhi, but logistics remained a problem. “We have around 500-tonnes capacity in Angul, but most of it is not getting lifted,” said VR Sharma, managing director, JSPL. “My suggestion to the government is to (set up) a portal which can give us a view on what is the demand and current supply. It will be helpful.”Court EdictOn Tuesday, the Delhi High Court rapped the Centre over an inadequate supply of oxygen to the National Capital. The court said it must supply 700 tonnes of oxygen a day to Delhi as asked by the Supreme Court, or it will be in contempt of the apex court. “You can put your head in the sand like an ostrich, we will not,” the court said.To ease the situation, the government is trying to airlift containers to places facing an acute shortage.The situation is worse in Delhi than, say, Maharashtra, because the National Capital does not have any steel plants or petrochemical refineries around it, other than the Indian Oil plant in Panipat.Beyond airlifting, the Indian Railways’ roll-on roll-off oxygen transport service is also helping alleviate the situation.A railway ministry spokesperson told ET that the Railways has mapped the entire country and identified the nearest plants able to supply to states in need of oxygen. However, the responsibility for allocation of supplies and arranging the containers for supply, lies with the central and state governments, he said.“As far as the Railways is concerned, we are not dealing with allocation of oxygen,” the spokesperson said. “We have prepared different route plans to see how Oxygen Express can move in the fastest time possible.”Passing the BuckCommerce and industry ministry representatives ET spoke to, passed the buck around. “Internal distribution of oxygen in Delhi is the responsibility of the Delhi administration,” said a senior official, without sharing details on whether the Capital was getting sufficient supplies, including from other states.As per another central government official, hospital-level coordination is done by the Delhi government.The situation in the country, meanwhile, is deteriorating, with hospitals in many parts of the country sending SOS calls on social media, with hours of oxygen supply left.In Karnataka, the high court on Tuesday took note of 24 deaths in two separate incidents after hospitals treating patients for Covid-19 ran out of oxygen in Chamarajanagar district. The state is using about 800 tonnes of oxygen a day, battling a shortage of about 900 tonnes a day. In Tamil Nadu, outgoing chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami wrote to the Prime Minister, saying the state would require 450 tonnes of oxygen a day, more than Tamil Nadu’s production capacity of 400 tonnes. The oxygen shortage in Tamil Nadu may start easing once Sterlite Copper’s Oxygen plant is recommissioned.Inox’s Jain said supply shortage will ease in the next few weeks. “Inox produces around 2,600 tonnes of oxygen. Around 85% usually went to businesses and 15% for medical use before the whole Covid scenario came up. But now 100% is going towards medical use,” he pointed out. “The government is doing everything they can — rail, roads, Army, Navy, everything is being used now.”Inputs from Bhavya Dilipkumar, Nehal Chaliawala, Nishtha Saluja, KR Balasubramanyam and Kirtika Suneja