Pakistan State Oil's (PSO) Board of Management (BoM) is holding a meeting in Islamabad on Friday (today) to discuss a one-point agenda: LPG outsourcing contract, well-informed sources told Business Recorder. "We are facing a catch 22 situation in this project despite the fact that 4 out of 7 Board members cleared the project; however there is considerable influence from some influentials who are not in the favour of the project," the sources added.
The Board comprises: Malik Naseem Hussain Labir, Irfan K. Qureshi, Sabir Hussain, Mahmood Akhtar, Usman Saifullah Khan, Pervaiz A. Khan and Hammayun Jogezai. It is not known which of these members voted in favour of the project. In an unprecedented move, Board of Management (BoM) of PSO issued a press release to counter the claims of their Managing Director Irfan Qureshi and his team regarding the facts surrounding the rushed signing of an agreement with a private sector LPG marketing company.
The Board's press release issued on Wednesday was in response to earlier "clarifications" issued by Mr Qureshi and his team last Friday and on Monday regarding the agreement allowing a company to set up LPG autogas stations at PSO's stations nation-wide.
The Board has stepped in and categorically rejected Qureshi's claims by stating that the "PSO Board of Management did not approve the LPG autogas project and is awaiting various clarifications prior to the resubmission of the said project in the next board meeting." This decision was taken in the Board meeting held on April 5, 2010.
Monday's press release following the Board meeting claimed that the Board had merely decided not to "accord exclusivity" to any single LPG marketing company. Interestingly, according to an entry dated March 29 on PSO's website, PSO signed the agreement with that company on April 25 on a non-exclusive basis and indicated a willingness "to join hands with other interested reputable parties of LPG industry for similar business arrangements".
The press release was alleged to have been an attempt to hide the actual developments in the Board meeting according to informed sources. When contacted on telephone Qureshi informed this reporter on Monday night, subsequent to the Board meeting, that reports of the agreement with that company having been scrapped or suspended were false. He emphasised that reports to this effect were "nonsense" and insisted that this reporter could "please come to PSO's office" and "check all documents" which would prove his claim. Qureshi even offered to fly this reporter out to Karachi.
Qureshi further told this reporter that "legal opinion" obtained by PSO on the agreement did not prevent the public sector giant from entering into any agreement with a highly litigious private sector party. According to sources within PSO with knowledge of developments in this matter, the Board has taken strong and adverse notice of this "clarification," which also alleged approval of PSO's Board for the controversial deal.
The announcement on March 29 that PSO had signed an agreement on March 25 came as a surprise to the industry since PSO had been negotiating with another group for the same deal. The other group issued a press release on Monday stating that even though it had been approached by PSO to sign a similar contract, it was now no longer willing to work with PSO on setting up LPG autogas stations.