Oil Companies Sound Alarm Over Looming Petrol Shortage

Oil marketing companies have warned that petrol reserves in Pakistan have dropped to a level sufficient for only 15 days, and have urged the government to intervene immediately to avert a supply crisis.

In a letter marked “extremely urgent” and addressed to Federal Minister for Energy (Petroleum Division) Ali Pervaiz Malik on July 15, the Oil Companies Advisory Council said the countrywide petrol supply situation had reached an unusually critical stage.

The letter said existing stocks of Motor Spirit (MS) stood at approximately 370,000 metric tons, equivalent to around 15 days of national demand.

The council said clearance of imported petrol consignments was being delayed and warned that if three pending import cargoes did not arrive on time, supplies could be disrupted further. It added that unpaid dues of Rs66.7 billion had pushed oil companies into financial distress.

According to the council, a combination of critically low reserves, delays in the customs clearance of imported fuel, rising demand and severe financial pressure on companies could together disrupt the supply of petrol across the country.

Separately, Petroleum Dealers Association Central Punjab President Chaudhry Numan Majeed said oil marketing companies had restricted petrol supply to fuel stations across the region.

In a statement, he said only 50 percent of the required supply was provided in the city on Wednesday, with companies attributing the cut to rising crude oil prices in the international market.

He added that the reduced supply had affected around 90 percent of petrol pumps in rural areas and 50 percent of those in urban areas. Oil marketing companies, for their part, cited delays in customs clearance as a contributing factor.

They called on OGRA to ensure the availability of fuel across the country and described the existing system of daily price revisions for petroleum products as impractical, saying frequent price fluctuations served neither the interest of the public nor that of businesses in the sector.