No plan to avoid oil shortage as petroleum minister shifts attention to hoarders  

ISLAMABAD: Instead of announcing a quick and effective strategy to deal with the ongoing shortage of petroleum products in various parts of the country, the Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik has preferred to issue a warning of strict action against the hoarding of petroleum products while addressing a news conference in the federal capital on Wednesday.

Malik said that the country has sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel to meet the needs of the country. “We have stocks of petrol to meet the needs of 20 days while the High Speed Diesel (HSD) stock is enough to cater the demands of 29 days.” 

Warning hoarders of petroleum products with serious consequences, he said the government will cancel licenses if someone is found involved in creating artificial shortage. He said that these hoarders are earning disrespect from people by creating artificial shortages, adding that  these shortages of petroleum products are only due to illegal hoarding. He explained that all this has been happening while the government has been taking measures to ensure availability of oil and gas in the country. 

When the state takes action, hoarders will be found weeping while conducting press conferences, Malik warned them.  

Amidst the dire shortage of petroleum products, the minister it seems, chose to change the narrative and lay the blame on hoarders. He rejected reports of shortages across the country and termed them ‘rumours’. 

He dispelled the impression that the government has been planning to jack up prices of oil on the demand of the International Monetary Funds (IMF). He said prices of petroleum products are determined in accordance with those of the global oil market.

Regarding the import of oil from Russia, Malik said these matters will be settled by the end of March, and it is hoped that the supply of Russian oil to the country will start in April 2023.

Malik also said that he will submit a report to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif within the next two days regarding the recent power breakdown.

It is relevant to note that reports of the shortage of petroleum products in various cities of the Punjab have been circulating in the media since the last few days and petrol pumps have curtailed oil supply to the customers.    

On Wednesday, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), in a letter written to the Punjab chief secretary, pointed out 19 illegal storage facilities.

According to OGRA Spokesman Imran Ghaznavi, these storages are illegal which might be in use to dump/store petroleum products for inventory gains and contribute to the existing shortage in different cities of Punjab. He said OGRA had directed the chief secretary to take strict action against the illegal hoarders, sharing a list of illegal petrol/diesel storages, identified through market intelligence.

“It is aimed at avoiding deliberate shortage [of the petroleum products] in the province,” said Ghaznavi.

He added that the authority had also dispatched its enforcement teams to check the identified storages and ensure a smooth supply of petroleum products across the province.

It is pertinent to mention here that citizens are experiencing a repeat of the January 2015, June 2020 and June 2022  petroleum shortage situation and that the absence of concerned authorities is conspicuous. It appears that regulators, the petroleum division and other market players have not learnt any lesson from past crises. 

All concerned are shifting the blame onto each other as is the norm, and no one seems ready to take responsibility to come up with a plan to avoid a repeat oil crisis in the country. The need of the hour is to take swift and constructive action so that people need not suffer again in the days ahead.