KARACHI, June 4: While the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) rejects the perception of oil shortage, the petroleum dealers insist that the supply is less than the demand and warns of a serious shortage of petrol and diesel on June 14-15 ahead of fresh POL price revision.

Dealers said they were even currently facing an acute shortage of petroleum products owing to thin supply by the OMCs which is affecting their daily sale.

“In case the dealers fail to get the required level of supply on a regular basis from the oil marketing companies (OMCs), there may be a serious shortage,” they said.

“We are getting 50 per cent less supply from the OMCs in Karachi and the situation is alarming in Punjab and the

interior of Sindh,” Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association chairman Abdul Sami Khan

told newsmen at a press conference on Thursday.

He said the government and the OMCs have been blaming dealers for holding back oil products, especially ahead of a fortnightly price revision to make windfalls on pile up inventory.

He said the PPDA delegation had held separate meetings with the petroleum secretary and the director-general of oil on the issue of oil shortage and thin supply from the OMCs, but the officials did not give a favourable response.

“If regular supplies are not ensured on June 14-15, the dealers will not be responsible for oil shortage,” he said, adding if is proved that the OMCs, despite of having oil products, were not supplying them, the dealers would proceed further to get justice from the court.

Mr Sami Khan said that the OMCs have pushed up rate of lubricants by 100 per cent and the government has still not paid any heed to this issue.

A large number of petroleum dealers create an artificial shortage on the eve of every price revision, especially in the Punjab and the interior of Sindh, and even pumps are closed from the morning. The PPDA has, so far, failed to take any action against such dealers.

Dealers have been demanding higher quantities a few days ahead of every price revision to make huge profits on inventories, it is alleged.

However, Sami Khan said that he cannot do anything to check the entire country. He was of the view that shortage of oil products ahead of price revision was mainly because of cuts in normal oil supply from the OMCs which results in a shortage.

Meanwhile, OCAC Secretary General Dr Ilyas Fazil rejected the PPDA claim about shortage of oil products in the country.

“There is virtually no shortage of petrol and diesel and even supplies from the OMCs to dealers have been normal,” he told Dawn on Thursday.

Dealers are exaggerating the issue as products are easily available in the country, he said adding that OCAC’s job is to ensure availability of products and that customers do not suffer any hardships.

OCAC, a forum of nine OMCs and five refineries, interacts with each other and the government in matters relating to issue of oil management within the country.

Dr Ilyas said that last month there were some problems of product availability when four refineries were running below the normal throughput owing to a circular debt caused by suspension of payments.

“Now refineries have been operating at normal throughput for the last eight days after getting payments from the government,” he added.

He said that receivables through price differential claim (PDC) through government-guaranteed finance arrangement as on May 31, 2008, was Rs55 billion which now currently stands at Rs60 billion as government had kept the price unchanged for the last two fortnights.

However, the OCAC general secretary said there were reports that the government had reimbursed some rupees but the value of PDC is rising by Rs1 billion per day.

Sale of petrol during July-April 2007-2008 went up by 30 per cent to 1.21 million tons as compared to 0.935 million tons in the same period of last fiscal.

Similarly high speed diesel (HSD) sales surged by 14 per cent to 6.7 million tons in July-April 2007-2008 from 5.86 million tons in the corresponding period of 2006-2007.