KARACHI, Feb 20: The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Wednesday succeeded in managing alternative arrangements to resume supply to the upcountry through National Logistic Cell (NLC) tankers.

The petroleum products’ supply of the PSO was suspended following a strike call given by the All-Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners’ Association (APOTOA) on Monday.

The management of the state-run oil company and the representatives of APOTOA held talks to resolve the issue on Wednesday night at Town Police Officer’s house in Keamari.

Chief of APOTOA Yusuf Shahwani told Dawn that the strike would continue as negotiations with the PSO had yielded no results and would resume on Thursday morning.

However, a PSO spokesman said the strike was called off and the private oil contractors had resumed oil supply.

The dispute between the oil tanker contractors and the PSO broke out after the oil company invited pre-qualification tender at par with international standard meeting the requirements of health, safety and environment (HSM) specification. A condition for the tanker drivers to be at least matriculate was made mandatory, which irritated the APOTOA.

Several demands of the APOTOA, including withdrawal of pre-qualification tender, were turned down, compelling the APOTOA to go on strike.

The PSO spokesman said talks about the implementation of HSE specification with the APOTOA representatives would now be held after Eidul Azha. But, Mr Shahwani said they had demanded withdrawal of pre-qualification tender for HSE implementation and the PSO officials were bent upon prolonging the strike by not accepting their demand.

The PSO sources said the petroleum products supply was badly affected as 50 per cent of the supply was transported through road, whereas 30 to 35 per cent moved through pipelines and the remaining was carried out by railways. The sources feared that if the strike continued, the availability of petroleum products could be affected in the upcountry.

In view of gravity of the situation, the sources said the NLC was asked to provide its tankers as an alternative arrangement to resume the supply to avoid a crisis-like state in parts of the upcountry.

The NLC authorities, when contacted, confirmed that they had provided tankers to the PSO to help it resume petroleum supply. They said the NLC tankers were being filled since Wednesday morning at Zulfiqarabad Oil Terminal and Jamshoro Oil Depot in Hyderabad for their onward journey. The oil supply from Zulfiqarabad Terminal and Mehmoodkot near Muzaffargarh to Quetta was being considered and hopefully would begin on Thursday morning.

The sources said APOTOA carried out transportation of edible oil, petroleum products and chemical through their 53,000 tankers to Karachi and other parts of the country. They used 16,000 tankers for transportation of chemical and edible oil products and the remaining were used for the supply of petroleum products.

For the past two months, the sources said, the PSO conducted a surprise check at different locations and found 34 oil tankers allegedly involved in pilferage and transportation of edible oil in the containers reserved for petroleum products. In some of the tankers, hidden chambers were also found, which was built in violation of the international standard.

The sources said the transportation of edible oil in the tankers reserved for petroleum products was hazardous to human health. The tanker drivers were also found pilfering petroleum products, which had caused loss to the national exchequer.

The sources said the state-run company had invited pre-qualification tender and more than 100 applicants had shown their interest so far.