Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain has said that the government has prepared a policy to build strategic reserves of oil for 14 to 20 days to tackle the petrol crisis.
“We are not happy with the work of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), which has failed to play the role of a regulator to ensure storages by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs),” Hussain said while speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.
He said reforms should be introduced in Ogra to expand its operation across the country and an across-the-board accountability should also be ensured.
He said the government had provisionally cancelled licences of five small OMCs including Admore, Askar, OTCL and Byco, who had failed to maintain oil stocks for 20 days and these companies had been given six months to build storages.
He said two factors played a key role in creating shortage of petrol. Elaborating, he said small OMCs had no storage capacity and big OMCs had stopped importing oil after the deregulation of trade due to Rs4 to Rs7 per litre price differential claims (PDCs).
He stressed that provincial governments should have taken action against the elements involved in black-marketing.
He said that during a meeting held with OMCs and refineries on Tuesday, the ministry bound big OMCs to maintain required fuel stocks. Three major refineries – Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), National Refinery Limited (NRL) and Bosicor – have faced technical problems, causing shortage of petrol.
He said total requirement of petrol was 200,000 tons per month. Local production is 60,000 tons while 140,000 tons are imported. ARL produces 18,000 tons of petrol per month.
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is importing 200,000 tons of petrol this month, of which 35,000 tons have reached. A consignment for 50,000 tons will arrive on June 18. He said petrol produced by Pak Arab Refinery Company (Parco) and NRL would be kept as strategic reserves.
He said Karachi had stock of 40,000 tons of petrol which was enough to meet five days of requirements.
He dispelled the impression that OMCs and dealers were building pressure on the government to achieve an increase in margins, adding the demand for increase in margins was genuine keeping in view the international practices.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ