Six OMCs issued show-cause notice over fuel shortage

OGRA asks petroleum division to convene urgent product review meeting

ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Wednesday found six mega oil marketing companies (OMCs) involved in the ongoing shortage of petroleum products across the country and issued show-cause notices to them.

Ogra Spokesman Imran Ghaznavi said that the regulator had asked the petroleum division to call an urgent product review meeting (PRM) to review the integrated system like stock, import and local production.

Out of a total of 33 OMCs, 6 of them – Attock Petroleum Limited (APL), Shell Pakistan Limited, Total Parco Pakistan Ltd, Hascol Petroleum Ltd, Gas and Oil Pakistan and Puma Energy Private Ltd – are involved in shortage of petrol across the country and have been issued show-cause notices.

Ogra had sought replies from these 6 OMCs within 24 hours. In case the OMCs failed to comply with the directive, the authority might revoke their licenses and impose fines which may go up to Rs10 million. In case of continuing contravention, a further fine of up to Rs1 million for each day could be imposed, he added.

According to the third-party physical verification and inspection through HDIP, Ogra officers, media reports and general complaints through Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal, the authority took notice and found these companies partially abandoned the regulated activity of marketing by either discontinuation of supply or provision of insufficient supplies at their retail outlets besides contravention of legal provisions of the (Refining, Blending, Transportation, Storage and Marketing) Rules, 2016 and Ogra Ordinance 2002, the spokesperson said.

The authority has also suggested to the petroleum division to call an urgent PRM to review stock position, planned imports and local production in light of the surging demand for petroleum products in the country in June.

The authority further advised the division to make arrangements for additional cargoes and directed the refineries to enhance their production at the maximum level to avoid further shortage of petroleum products.

The division has been asked to implement the decisions taken in the PRM on May 13 with respect to the schedule of imports and local production volumes as committed by refineries for supply to all the OMCs to maintain sufficient stocks and avoid any untoward situation that might affect the masses.

The Ogra spokesperson said in a tweet that Ogra has also advised the chief secretaries of the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, as well as the chief commissioner of Islamabad to ensure the availability of oil stocks at the retail outlets and report it in case of any anomaly.

These OMCs had been repeatedly directed to ensure the availability of petroleum products on the most-immediate basis and in timely manner at their retail outlets, keeping in view the demand to avoid any inconvenience to the consumers, the spokesperson said.

The authority noted that a few OMCs were maintaining very healthy stock position at some locations, especially in the south as against low inventory at mid and upcountry, whereas, few OMCs were operating at critically low volumes throughout the country thus threatening the continuity of supplies to retail outlets in a timely manner as per their demand by the concerned OMCs that had ultimately affected the product availability in the market.