ISLAMABAD: Tracing the root causes of corruption in the oil sector remained inconclusive at a meeting of a sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources here on Monday.

During the deliberations, oil companies blamed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for weak supervision, while the regulator cited judicial intervention from courts for failing to stop mismanagement.

Members of the sub-committee were astonished to note that many oil companies were selling more petrol and diesel than their storage capacity.

“There is so much mess in the oil sale business but both the oil companies and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority have failed to check the state of affairs,” convener of the sub-committee Senator Taj Muhammad Afridi said.

He highlighted the role of some fuel outlets (petrol pumps) which bought one million litres of petrol per month as well as the informal fuel stations in rural areas that were selling low-quality petrol.

“I do not want to name the station and that company here — as they will say that I am targeting them, but it is practically impossible for any single station to sell one million litres of petrol,” said Senator Afridi.

“The best selling stations could only sell between 40,000 and 50,000 litres in a month ,” he added.

Meanwhile, the committee members discussed fuel adulteration by the informal fuel stations established under licences issued by oil marketing companies (OMCs).

However, Shehryar Umar, senior general manger of the PSO, said that informal fuel sales were established by companies in remote and backward areas where sales were low and establishing a pumping station was not viable, but many such sales outlets have been established without licences and nothing is being done,” he said.

He added that the concern of the PSO was that these illegal sales outlets were getting petrol and diesel from any of the OMCs, but nobody acknowledged it.

“To end the adulteration of diesel with kerosene, I suggest that the price of kerosene may be raised to eliminate chances of profit in sale of mixed fuels,” he added.

But his suggestion invited a strong reaction from members of the sub-committee, and Senator Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini criticised the PSO official along with representatives of other OMCs.

“Tomorrow you will come to raise the price of wheat because of some reason — but if there is adulteration it is because of you, not the poor people who use this fuel,” Senator Badini said.

“Only because you or the people in this room do not use kerosene, therefore, it should be made costly, said Mr Badini.

The PSO official, however, complained that other oil companies were selling fuel to their outlets (pumps) illegally and authorities were not doing anything.

The issue of claims of Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM) by various oil marketing companies also came under discussion.

Senator Taj Afridi said that some companies did not even have their storage depots.

“We all know about these two companies — they do not have depots and they continue to establish new pumps very often — what have you done?” Senator Taj Afridi asked.

However, the officials said that not much could be done against these two companies as they obtained stay orders from the court of law.

The committee recommended that all OMCs should have tracker and log system to trace the movement of their tankers.

Published in Dawn December 6th, 2016