Oil tankers association calls off strike as demands accepted

ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association (APOTOA) on Wednesday called off its strike and announced the resumption of oil supply countrywide as their negotiations with the government succeeded and their demands were accepted.

However, petrol supply could not be resumed up to the routine level immediately in different parts of the country. Chairman APOTOA Muhammad Shahwani, while talking to the media after successful negotiations with the government, said the government had assured them that their demands will be accepted, therefore, they were ending the strike.

Secretary Petroleum Sikandar Sultan Raja was leading the government side in the negotiations, while the APOTOA chairman was heading the oil tankers’ representatives.

It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday, the APOTOA and APCCA announced a countrywide strike in protest over the implementation of 2009 safety rules imposed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). Starting 24 July, Ogra initiated checking the tankers being used by the oil marketing companies to reduce frequent accidents being caused by substandard tankers. According to Ogra, around 40 percent oil tankers are substandard and do not fulfil the criteria. Besides the Ogra regulations, the representatives of the oil tankers association were critical of the Motorway and NHA Police’s treatment and accused them of highhandedness.

Agreement has been reached for the resolution of the all issues faced by the oil tankers, Shahwani said. He said it was agreed that both sides will negotiate to increase the freight rate of oil tankersresponsible for the miseries of the people caused by fuel shortage, Shahwani blamed the government saying that earlier they announced strike for July 3 and then it was postponed till July 24, but the government didn’t take any measures to resolve the issues faced by the oil tankers owners. He said the government is responsible for causing difficulties to the masses.

The APOTA presented 10 items demand list to the government which includes increase in freight rate, abolition of National Logistics Cell (NLC) from the oil transportation business, stoppage of oil transportation to Peshawar via train, oil tankers passage through Kohat tunnel, decrease of explosive permit rate, continuation of current regulations system etc.

When asked that how much increase in freight rate was agreed by the government, central leader of APOTA Salman Tareen said “none of our demands was accepted by the government, we have been assured that the issues faced by the oil tankers association will be resolved.” On safety regulations, he said “we are ready to follow Ogra’s quality standards but it cannot be done overnight. Our industry can build 350 to 400 tankers a month and if we want to replace all the substandard tankers it will require couple of years.” He claimed that the government has agreed to defer the timeline for the implementation of safety measures by two years.

MNA Jamshed Dasti, who was also present in meeting as an oil tankers representative, told the media that NHA and OMC are making billions but no one is working for the betterment of the road safety. “This is my clan,” while pointing toward the oil tankers representatives and said that they are hardly making their livelihood by driving tankers.

Talking to media, spokesperson of Ogra Imran Ghaznavi said it was agreed that Ogra will hold discussion with the oil industry in the coming week to review the technical standards 2009 under clause 5 of the said standards to remove difficulties being faced by the industry.