ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum emphasised on Monday that safety rules for oil tankers should be implemented.

Addressing members of the Senate committee, Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi agreed that oil tankers in the country lacked safety features. However, he said some safety rules for tankers might be “too stringent to be followed” in the country’s environment.

The minister was of the view that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (Ogra) rules for safety standards of oil tankers needed to be revisited. “The general observation is that we make laws which are impossible to implement. We need to discuss the matter with the [owners of] oil tankers and OCAC [Oil Companies Advisory Council] to devise a workable solution,” he said.

Taking to the media after the meeting, he said an in-camera briefing to discuss safety standards for oil tankers was needed to prevent any misreporting. “Basically, it’s not Ogra’s responsibility to implement this law. It should be the responsibility of either the motorway police, or the oil companies which are filling these tankers,” he said.

Ogra’s regulations need to be revisited, says Khaqan

The members of the Senate committee agreed that despite threats of a strike by oil-tanker associations, safety measures should be strictly implemented to avert tragedies such as the Ahmedpur Sharqia oil tanker fire in which nearly 230 people lost their lives.

Referring to the incident, Chairman of the Committee Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri said, “This is a serious situation as almost everybody is at fault, including the oil company and various departments. The general public should also have basic awareness as people were seen coming to the spot bringing buckets and mugs to collect leaking petrol. And worst of all, it was being done while [some of them were] smoking.”

Briefing the committee, Ogra Chairwoman Uzma Adil said that rules for oil tankers were notified in 2009 but have yet to be implemented. All the departments and stakeholders concerned had their share of responsibility in the Ahmedpur tragedy, she said.

She said the National Highway Authority and motorway police failed to check the load requirements of the tanker, the fitness test of the vehicle was not clear and, incidentally, the licence from the department of explosives was fake. “Besides, oil companies continue to fill the tankers without proper documentation and certifications,” she said.

The Senate committee was informed that there were 11,704 tankers in the country and Ogra had third-party inspectors at all the filling points to ensure that oil companies do not supply fuel in substandard tankers.

However, Ms Adil warned that implementing stricter rules would be met with resistance from tanker associations and maybe from a few oil companies as well.

Acting Secretary, Petroleum, Jalal Sikander informed the committee that a meeting of all departments concerned as well as representatives of oil-tanker associations would be held at the petroleum ministry on Tuesday (today) to devise a workable solution.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017