The negotiations between Petroleum Division and All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association (APOTA) have been deferred till Wednesday (today) as both the sides refused to budge from their positions regarding implementation of high safety standards set by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The APOTOA had announced to go on strike on October 23 as it claimed that the government was not paying heed to their demands. Seeking to defuse the situation, the Petroleum Division called a meeting of all stakeholders on Tuesday.
The secretary Petroleum Division has convened the meeting to resolve the issues between APOTOA and government departments. The representatives of OGRA, National Highway Authority (NHA), police, explosive department (Ministry of Industries) attended the meeting.
In the meeting, a number of issues of oil tankers pertaining to the issuance of traffic fines by the Motorway Police, strict regulations relating to the fitness of their vehicles and differences regarding transportation fare with the oil marketing companies were discussed.
Talking to Business Recorder, Chairman All Pakistan Tankers Owner Association, Haji Akram Durrani said that all oil tankers operating in the country have been approved by the oil marketing companies and the new standards should be accompanied with the revised freight rates, besides redressing other issues faced by the oil tankers
Sources said that the OGRA has informed the meeting that overnight change cannot be expected in the field but reasonable demands of oil tankers can be discussed. Different issues propped up with Oil Tankers Association and the government in the recent past in July and March resulted in the slowdown of supplies of petroleum products to petrol pumps. This led to the shortage of oil and caused many inconvenience to businesses and public at large.
The Senate standing Committee on Petroleum was recently informed that over 7,000 oil tankers were not in accordance with the safety standards notified by the regulator, but they were still on the roads. This could cause a major incident like the Ahmerdpur Sharqia tanker blaze.
The committee was informed that there are around 11,704 tankers in the country and the OGRA had installed third-party inspectors at all the filling points to ensure that oil companies do not supply fuel to substandard tankers. Out of the total, only 4,653 oil tankers were according to the safety standards.
The parliamentary panel was informed that 99 percent tankers were in compliance according to explosive department but according to data submitted by Oil Companies Advisory Committee, only 45 to 50 percent tankers were in compliance of safety standards notified by the OGRA.
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