December 12, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 1, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The military authorities have complained about problems being faced in fuel handling due to what they called the non-cooperative attitude of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO).

Informed sources told Dawn the issue had been taken up at the top level in recent months and the government was informed about the problems in early October.

The “embarkation units of army and PAF (Pakistan Air Force) have started facing security and administrative problems due to privatisation of a few berths at the port. Problem was further aggravated as the KPT refused to take any responsibility in this regard”, the sources said quoting a communication to the federal government.

Secondly, it said, the PSO had refused to renew the contract of de-fuelling PN ships on as required basis. The military authorities renewed their opposition to the privatisation of PSO and said there was increased likelihood of defaults on PSO’s obligations.

Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday confirmed that the diesel and kerosene stocks were low, but arrangements had been made to import about 400,000 tonnes of diesel to augment the supply cover to 13 days by the end of December.

In a statement, the petroleum ministry said: “Stock depletion was on account of emergency shutdown of Parco refining facility during November and further aggravated by reduced draft at Port Qasim”. The statement said the import plan for January 2008 would further build up the stocks to at least 15 days’ cover.

However, the ministry absolved itself of the stock responsibility. “Subsequent to deregulation, the imports are entirely done by the oil marketing companies while the ministry acts as a facilitator only.”

Interestingly, the stock position of different products released to the press by the ministry and oil companies on Tuesday do not match. For example, the ministry claimed that it had HOBC stocks for 20 days and for motor spirit for 16 days. On the contrary, the OCAC claimed that the country had HOBC stocks for 18 days and motor spirit for 19 days.