Ogra fines 20 firms Rs427m for violating fuel stock rules

ISLAMABAD: In a much-awaited but bold decision, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has swung into action and punished 20 unscrupulous oil marketing companies (OMCs) with a penalty of Rs427million for short-lifting of local POL products and not maintaining fuel stocks in March 2025.

According to the official documents available with this scribe, the regulator has exposed 20 OMCs to monetary penalties under Rule 69 of Pakistan (Refining Blending Storage, Transportation & Marketing) Oil Rules, 2016. Under this rule, it is mandatory for all OMCs to maintain their minimum 20 days’ stock of petroleum products. Despite repeated directions issued through minutes of Product Review Meeting, these companies failed to uplift local products as per the allocations and violated their licensing conditions.

The regulator has imposed a penalty on several companies ranging from over Rs8million to Rs37million. “Earlier, OGRA issued show cause notices to these OMCs and built the case to penalize them. If these companies continue to violate the decisions of monthly Product Review Meetings, their licenses will be suspended,” the relevant officials of the regulator warned.