Petrol crisis may go on for another 10 days

ISLAMABAD: Although the petroleum ministry says the petroleum crisis will end this week as the government is taking emergency steps to overcome the crisis the officials in PSO say it might continue for the next ten days or more despite all the measures taken by the government.
The PSO management could not reply to The News queries because the managing director of the country has left for Qatar for holding talks on LNG.A well-placed source in PSO however informed The News on condition of anonymity that the government has started arranging petrol on an emergency basis.
“Private oil marketing company Shell has imported petrol and a ship carrying mogas or petrol of the said company is reaching Pakistan today (Tuesday). PSO has asked the Shell Company for lending it 20,000 MT from this shipment as a swap arrangement with a another shipment being imported by PSO,” said an insider.
But it will take the ship four to five days to berth and offload oil for onward transportation. This is the first time that the state-run PSO is begging smaller companies to rescue it. Previously it used to come to the rescue of smaller companies at the time of crisis.
“Beside borrowing 20,000 MT from Shell the PSO has also imported petrol and an Oman Trading International ship named V Miastros carrying 50,000 MT is load oil at Sohar port, Oman. The whole process of loading and testing would take at least three days. This ship is carrying fuel for almost all other OMCs including Shell, Chevron, TPPL and PSO as well. This can possibly berth, if all goes well, on January 26, 2015 and if all goes it would take petrol another four to five days to reach Punjab,” the source said.
He further said that another ship called Zembis has just left Singapore. It takes 12 days to reach Karachi. Hence the earliest possible date for the availability of this petrol would be January 30 or 31, 2015. This means the crisis will continue for the next ten days.
The source further said that the high-ups in petroleum ministry and PSO were well informed and knew about the impending crisis but they kept their eyes closed. There are many factors behind this crisis including lack of planning of proper supply and distribution, corruption and mismanagement.
“The authorities in the petroleum ministry and PSO were timely informed that Pak Arab Oil Refinery (PARCO) would remain shut down for five to six days in January. However despite knowing well ahead of time they did not make alternative arrangements,” observed the source.
Similarly, increase in the demand is not a new phenomenon; it has been increasing over the years. The concerned authorities know in which part of the year the petrol demand increases but even then they could not prepare themselves in time, he said.
“The PSO knows which of its 29 oil depots across the country face increase in consumption and it could have avoided this crisis through additional supplies by cutting the share of less consuming depots. Another reason that contributed to this crisis is the delayed shipment of the petroleum products despite timely firm orders, the source said adding that because of the faulty agreement with PNSC the PSO already had to bear the loss of billions of rupees and a case in this regard has been registered in the Sindh High Court.
The use of poorly maintained and and old ships the import of petroleum products is always delayed despite timely firm orders, he commented. Although the petroleum ministry has shifted the responsibility of this crisis to other ministries the whole responsibility lies with the petroleum ministry as it is directly involved in the crisis. It was the task of petroleum ministry to recover its outstanding amount from the IPPs, he commented.
Similarly the board of management of PSO is also responsible of the whole crisis, as it took no action despite knowing the situation. Despite tall claims of the government of appointing credible and highly professional people in the board of management of the public sector companies, their performance is pathetic.