A shortage of petrol was recently noted when Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) closed fuel pumps across Pakistan due to a shortage of supplies apparently, the government is to blame.
The situation started to deteriorate in late April and has still not been resolved.
The OGRA said in a statement to the media that OMCs are responsible for causing the defect and that the service has evidence. It is also said that six OMCs received exhibition advice, while two others were investigated for petroleum hardening and billed by law.
Read Also: Govt is likely to Reduce price of Petrolium Products
After a thorough look at the situation, it seemed that OMC was not to blame. Instead, the lack of fuel was due to a poor government estimate.
While there are many technical issues, the Pakistani government has closed the OMCs to cancel their import orders on March 25, 2020, the laity said.
Apparently, according to a letter published below, this was due to lower demand due to coronavirus locks.
OMCs were asked to collect their fuel from local refineries, as these local refineries (mainly state-owned) would be out of service with little demand (and after import).
Following the above instructions copying OGRA, oil sales companies canceled their import orders and decided to rely on the local refineries to meet demand.
According to ProPakistani, Shell Pakistan has signed an import order of 55,000 tons (MT) per month. Month for 92 RON gasoline engine (Mogas) on February 20, 2020 to be delivered in March, April and May 2020.
Following the above order ordering the OMCs to cancel planned imports from April 2020, Shell Pakistan canceled the order and removed approximately 83,000 tons of fuel from the system that would otherwise have been available in early June.
The situation changed and in April demand for oil in the country increased. At the time, OMCs had to rely on local refineries that limited their production due to price differentials on crude oil.
For the above reasons, there was very little gasoline in the country at the end of last year, and according to our sources, oil sales companies have consistently communicated their inventory data to OGRA and the Department of Energy.
The OMCs have even made a clear statement to the Ministry that their stock would dry up within 8 days.
In May 2020, the government lifted the fuel ban on OMCs and placed new orders. Not to mention that it takes a long time to reach oil tankers to Pakistan after placing their order.
E.g. Shell Pakistan ordered an order in the second week of May and the tanker reached Pakistan on June 8, 2020. The tanker has now been unloaded and the fuel is being delivered nationwide.
Clearly, the situation came about because of bad government punishment - because they thought demand would drop due to coronavirus locks. However, the barriers were lifted and demand increased.
It can be said that the situation was uncertain enough and the estimates may not be accurate, but the real culprit for fuel shortages was clearly not OMCs.
