The oil sector has warned the government that the nation may experience a scarcity of gasoline and high-speed diesel (HSD) in the coming days due to limited imports and constricted domestic supplies.
The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), a group that speaks for the oil industry, has written to the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) regarding the deficit.
According to the OCAC, the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) were given permission to import HSD and motor spirit/petrol in response to their demand during the evaluation of product availability for the month of November 2022. This choice was made after careful thought.
During the product review, a shortage of 210,000 MT of HSD and 147,000 MT of gasoline was estimated. It was mentioned at the conference that it would be challenging to import HSD in November because of the constrained availability on the international market and the astronomically high charges. As a result, only PSO has so far reserved 220,000 MT and 10,000 MT of supply from Flow Petroleum.
But alarmingly, no import timetable has been made for fuel that matches the anticipated sales volume and the stock cover. The import plan now has a gap, notwithstanding the importers’ obligation to complete it according to the OCAC letter.
This essential problem was raised during the industry meeting on November 1 as well, but no specific guarantees have been acquired in writing from the importing OMCs, it claimed.
The OMCs, who were supposed to bring imports for use in October, received their shipments in the last week of the month, according to Geo, thus the product wasn’t prepared for use in the month it was supposed to be. The letter noted that OMCs who had been authorised to import items the month prior for use the following month had already utilised the shipments.
