LAHORE, March 3: Judgment on the tariff petition filed by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) is likely within two weeks, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Secretary Brig Tariq Mahmood (retired) said on Monday.

He was talking to newsmen after proceedings on SNGPL’s license petition.

“The Sui Southern and the Sui Northern file such petitions twice a year and decision on them is taken after detailed analysis of the pros and cons and interest of all stakeholders,” he said.

“At present, consumers are suffering in every possible way; they are over charged, given less and sub-standard quality of oil.

“It is difficult to set standards and then execute them on country-wide basis. But the authority is devising technical, efficiency and security standards for petrol and gas stations and will come up with a workable plan,” he claimed.

The Ogra secretary was of the opinion that the authority was too young to have made any difference and establish its presence on the ground as far as all issues concerning the sector.

The government has suspended clauses concerning prices of oil and gas in the Ogra ordinance, placing them outside authority’s purview. Same was the case of development surcharges on oil and gas sectors.

In the case of gas, surcharges form almost 70 per cent of its price. Exploration and agreements ruling them had also not been made part of authority’s jurisdiction.

“All these factors limit Ogra’s role in oil and gas price fixing,” he said.

“This, in no way, means that the authority has been rendered useless in price mechanism. It still has lot of leverage in both areas and successfully implementing it.

“The authority made the gas companies bring down their transmission losses to a considerable extent and forced them to sell gas on the basis of the British Thermal Unit (BTU) — heating capacity of gas — rather then volume of it. At present, the Ogra is setting standards for refining process of oil,” the Ogra secretary said.