A diesel shortage has not only made cars thirsty, but has also affected the operations of some funeral parlors in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

Longxing funeral parlor in Chongqing's Yubei district has suspended cremation services for two days, as it cannot find diesel supplies to power its incinerators.

The funeral parlor used its last drop of diesel on Sunday morning, Zhou Qian, general manager of the parlor, told China Daily on Monday.

"Three bodies were carried here this morning. Knowing that we've stopped the service, families of the dead left for other parlors," she said.

Now six bodies at the parlor are being kept in the freezer until they can be cremated, the manager said.

Funeral parlor staff members could not find one liter of diesel despite contacting a dozen gas stations in the downtown area on Sunday, and people sent to a nearby gas storage depot returned empty-handed as well, Zhou said.

"We don't know what to do and feel nearly desperate."

Staff members of Jiangdong funeral parlor in Beibei district are also worried about running out of diesel soon.

With a capacity to handle about 10 bodies a day, the parlor will use up all its fuel in 10 days, a manager surnamed Ye told China Daily on Monday.

"We got five barrels of diesel two days ago. We have no idea what to do after we use up the fuel," he said.

In Chongqing, diesel and natural gas are the two sources that funeral parlors use to fuel incinerators. Some parlors that use natural gas are also worried about the diesel shortage.

"We have five hearses. Lack of diesel has made two of them stop working. I have to travel more often to carry bodies every day," a driver with Yubei funeral parlor said.

Many Chinese cities are facing an unprecedented diesel shortage that has led to the closure of many gas stations and long lineups of trucks.

Experts blame the shortage partly on the "blackout policy" adopted by some local governments to meet their emission reduction goals as many enterprises have been hoarding diesel supplies to use for the generation of electricity so they can continue production.

To ease the shortage, Sinopec, China's major oil refiner, has decided to bring 16,000 tons of diesel from East China's Jiangsu and Anhui provinces to Chongqing this month to ease the shortage there.

(China Daily November 16, 2010)