KARACHI: A petrol crisis hit Karachi on Tuesday as a large number of fuel stations ran out of their stocks in the absence of supply for the past two days due to an oil tankers’ strike over a number of issues.

The strike has for the past two days triggered panic buying from the motorists, forcing a large number of fuel stations to wrap up their business much before the scheduled time. The news about failure of talks between the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association (APOTOA) in Islamabad in the second half of the day created further uncertainty.

“There are around 240 petrol stations in Karachi alone,” said Khurram Yahya of the All Pakistan CNG and Petroleum Dealers. “On an average, a station can stock 25,000 to 30,000 litres of petrol in an underground facility and most of these petrol stations depend on a daily supply to run the business round the clock. The stations can hardly operate for 24 hours without replenishments. The strike which began on Monday morning finally turned the stations dry by Tuesday evening.”

The oil tanker operators went on an indefinite strike on Monday and suspended supply of petroleum products from Karachi to the whole country in protest over a number of issues, including imposition of traffic fines by the Motorway police, strict regulations relating to the fitness of their vehicles and differences over transportation charges with the oil marketing companies. The situation, which fanned fears of scarcity of petrol and diesel at fuel stations across the country, finally started affecting Karachi by Tuesday afternoon.

“Some 22,000 tankers are involved in supply business in Karachi alone,” said Israr Ahmed Shinwari, a spokesman for the APOTOA and the Oil Tanker Contractors Association (OTCA). “We never wanted to paralyse daily life but the situation has forced us to call the strike. Despite our repeated requests, the government institutions paid no heed.”

The APOTOA and OTCA mainly stressed on their three demands and accused the traffic and petroleum authorities of imposing strict laws for oil tankers’ fitness, which included fixing of an extra axle in the vehicle after the Ahmedpur Sharqia incident last month, which everyone could not afford.

“Secondly, after that incident the Motorway police are exploiting the situation and imposing heavy fines over minor issues. And the last issue is related to oil marketing companies which are not paying proper fares for the supply and that too through a much delayed payment schedule,” said the spokesman.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017