Islamabad: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Tuesday issued a strong rebuttal to speculations on alleged shortages of petrol and diesel in the country, adding that the local refineries were playing their due role in meeting the demand for petroleum products.
Imran Ghaznavi, an OGRA spokesperson, said in a statement that the country had “sufficient” petrol and diesel stocks for meeting the demand for 18 and 37 days, respectively.
“Furthermore, ships carrying 101,000 metric tonnes petrol are at berth/outer anchorage,” the statement added.
OGRA strongly rebut the speculations on Petrol/diesel shortages.
The country has sufficient petrol and Diesel stocks for meeting demand for 18 and 37 days respectively.
Furthermore, ships carrying 101,000MT petrol is at berth/outer anchorage. 1/1
Spokesman OGRA— Imran Ghaznavi (@ighaznavi) January 24, 2023
The rebuttal came a day after it was reported that oil marketing companies (OMCs) had cut down supplies of petroleum products over long delays in the issuance of letters of credit (LCs) by private banks for imports, which led to long queues and panic buying of petrol in various cities across the country.
Earlier this month, the Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Energy had sought urgent intervention from the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to arrange the opening of LCs for fuel imports after the entire industry, including the OMCs and refineries, raised red flags over looming supply disruption.