KARACHI: Amidst a petroleum crisis when stakeholders are contesting demand and supply data, the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) has not updated ‘current data’ on its website for unexplained reasons since October 2014.

The data of petrol imports has not been updated since October 2014 while the export data of naphtha from October 2014 onwards is also absent from the OCAC’s website.

The latest sales data of various petroleum products have also not been posted. The website only provides the sales statistics data from July-June 2004-05 to July-February 2013-14.

OCAC, considered a reliable source for POL data, currently comprises of country’s five refineries including Parco, NRL, PRL, ARL and Bosicor Pakistan Limited. Ten oil marketing companies including PSO, Shell Pakistan, Chevron Pakistan Limited, Attock Petroleum Limited, Total Parco Limited and Admore Gas are also its members.

The unavailability of key statistics compromises the objectives of the OCAC: to strike short/long range demand/supply balances for various oil products and advise the government and member companies in this respect.

Browsing through the website it is obvious the five year projected POL demand and supply balance is also under construction. Refinery production data of various POL products starts from 2003-04 and ends at July-March 2013-14.

According to the data displayed at the OCAC website, Pakistan imported 650,044 tonnes from July-September 2014. Import of petrol in 2007-08 was 127,385 tonnes which reached to 2.19 million tonnes in 2013-14.

OCAC’s objectives are to represent the downstream oil industry at various forums in matters of common interest affecting their operations in Pakistan and to pro-actively plan any infrastructure upgrades de-bottlenecking needed as per medium/long term petroleum product availability projections.

Another objective is to develop plans/suggestions to help government to streamline the oil and gas sector.

In order to coordinate all activities, OCAC plays a pivotal role in rationalising imports in such a manner that supply/demand is balanced. It is a focal body of the government and other agencies to interact with the old industry.

Other areas of focus are effective petroleum products supply logistic management, plan to overcome port constraints, identifying the right energy wise for Pakistan and follow up with the ministries of petroleum and finance to ensure the continued viability of the downstream oil sector.

Published in Dawn January 20th , 2015

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