Hammad dismisses media reports, says enough POL stocks in country

Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar on Friday dismissed reports regarding shortage of petroleum products in the country.

The minister took to social media, saying that there was no risk of shortage.

“Contrary to some media reports, there is no risk of shortage of POL products in the country,” Azhar said on his Twitter handle. He further said that Pakistan has stocks of 27 days for diesel and 28 days for petrol consumption in the country.

“This is the highest stock level since last many years,” the minister said.

The rebuttal comes after the Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan (OMAP) appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division) and Chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to allow them to procure oil products both from local refineries (as per allocated quota) and international market.

In the letter written by OMAC Chairman Tariq Wazir Ali, the federal government was informed that their high-volume business cannot operate without proper government support and cooperation of other related departments.

Local refineries, global market: OMAP seeks permission to procure oil products

“For the last one year we have pummeled every door individually and collectively but the result is a cipher. In spite of the fact that we are working in full concurrence of Ogra rules and regulations, paying fees, dues, penalties (if any) regularly, invested billions of rupees on storage, contributed in national exchequer with huge taxes and duties but we are deprived of our rights to work freely,” the letter read.

PRL temporarily shuts down operations

On Thursday, Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that it has temporarily shut down its refinery operations due to operational and ullage constraints.

“The operations will remain halted until the situation improves,” the notice said.

Meanwhile, Hammad, regarding refineries facing the issue of sale of furnace oil, said that furnace oil-based power plants have not run in November or December till now as per merit order.

“However, they are required to keep stocks of FO for which the power division is coordinating with them,” he said.