The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) granted nine provisional licences in fiscal year 2018-19 to construct storage facilities before establishing oil marketing companies (OMCs), paving way for an investment of around Rs4.5 billion in oil infrastructure over next three years.
According to its Annual Report 2018-19 issued on Tuesday, Ogra conducted inspections at 447 fuel outlets and issued 182 show cause notices for overcharging, less filling and non-conforming quality, cumulatively imposing a penalty of Rs64.57 million during the period under review.
The authority granted permission to six companies to initiate marketing of petroleum products (after fulfilling their obligation of constructing oil storage infrastructure) to the extent of region / province specified along with each oil marketing company.
The companies include LaGuardia Petroleum (Pvt) Limited (Sindh), Oil Industries Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (Punjab), Euro Oil (Pvt) Limited (Punjab), Flow Petroleum (Pvt) Limited (Punjab), Taj Gasoline (Pvt) Limited (Sindh) and Hi Tech Lubricants Limited (Punjab).
It granted permission for operation of new/additional oil storages to Hascol Petroleum Limited at Kotlajam and Shikarpur, Be Energy Limited at Machike, Flow Petroleum at Attock and Laguardia at Daulatpur. The approval was also extended to Oil Industries (Pvt) Limited at Sahiwal, Euro Oil at Sahiwal, Taj Gasoline at Shikarpur and Hi-Tech Lubricants at Sahiwal.
In addition to operations, Ogra granted permission for construction of new oil storages to Attock Petroleum Limited at Sahiwal, Total Parco Pakistan Limited at Shikarpur, Gas and Oil Pakistan Limited at Rahim Yar Khan and Hub and Jinn Petroleum at Hub.
During the one-year period, the authority granted licence for construction of a new oil refinery (Khyber Oil Refinery) having a capacity of 20,000 barrel per day designed on local crude which was expected to be constructed within five years at the cost of $500 million.
The authority also granted eleven licences to Lube Oil Blending Plants for construction and operation and eleven licences to Lubricant Marketing Companies (LMCs) for import of lube oil in the country. During the year in review, Ogra addressed around 663 complains received against different outlets under the ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ initiative.
To ensure provision of quality petroleum products across the country, the entity, through Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP), made 460 quality checks of imported energy products and 725 quality checks of imported non-energy products, the report said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2020.
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