Senate body calls for implementing OGRA rules

ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has failed in pushing the oil marketing companies (OMCs) to implement its eight-year-old orders for improving technical standards of road transport vehicles, containers and equipment to safely transport petroleum products. Ogra had notified these rules “Technical Standards for the Petroleum Industry (Road Transport Vehicles, Containers and Equipment Used for the Transportation of Petroleum Products)” in October 2009.

Due to gross violation by the OMCs of these rules and Ogra’s weak implementation powers, Ahmedpur Sharqia-like incidents are happening, taking hundreds of human lives.

The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources that met here with Senator Israrullah Khan Zehri in the chair, taking serious notice of the Ahmedpur Sharqia incident that happened last month and in which 230 people had been burnt to death, the committee directed that FIRs must be lodged against the responsible of the incident.

The committee members also held Ogra responsible for enforcing its rules on OMCs and also said that there were shortcomings in the management of the authority due to which the enforcement was weak.

Ogra Chairperson Uzma Adil informed the committee that out of 11,704 oil tankers, only 4,653 were complying with the notified standards of the authority. The condition of around 40 percent oil tankers are not okay while only 38 percent of oil tankers have fitness certificates, she said.

In the last month’s incident, the tanker was carrying 50,000 liters of oil which was far more than its capacity. She further said that Ogra had formulated the rules and notified to OMCs but they were not following them.

She said Shell Pakistan Limited (SPL) had violated the rules due to which the Ahmedpur Sharqia incident happened. Ogra had slapped Rs10 million penalty on the company and directed it to pay a million rupees each to the families of the deceased and half-a-million rupees to injured persons. She also informed the committee that through third party, they were going to evaluate and survey the oil carrying tankers. On this step of Ogra, the oil tankers association is unhappy. She, however, said that she could not answer about responsibilities of the National Highways Authority and the Motorways Police and the department giving fitness certificates to these vehicles.

Senator Nisar Muhammad Khan said that Ogra was not playing its role properly. He said to deal with such incidents in future, formulation of rules were required.

Senator Baz Muhammad said criminal FIRs should be lodged against the concerned people. Senator Rubina Irfan proposed that tankers which are not fulfilling the specification of the Motorway Police should be banned.Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources said the tanker association had threatened a strike. He said the government was planning to transport oil via pipeline.