PM orders monitoring of petroleum products' movement amid hoarding fears

• PM Shehbaz orders crackdown on hoarders.
• Petrol pumps causing shortage to be shut.
• Centre, provinces to work for conserving POL products.
  

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed authorities to develop a dashboard to monitor the movement of petroleum products in Pakistan and share real-time data with provinces.

He issued the directions during a meeting in Islamabad, convened to review the supply and storage of petroleum products in the country amid the disruption of the supply chain due to the conflict in the Middle East.

During the meeting attended by federal ministers and other high-ranking officials, PM Shehbaz ordered authorities to take swift and strict action against hoarders and immediately shut petrol pumps involved in creating artificial shortages of petroleum products.

Officials from the Ministry of Energy told the meeting that the country currently had sufficient reserves of petroleum products to meet domestic requirements.

The prime minister instructed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to cancel the licences of petrol pumps involved in hoarding and initiate legal proceedings against them.

He also directed the petroleum minister to visit provinces and work with provincial governments to make a strategy for conserving petroleum products and ensuring an uninterrupted supply to the masses.

In this regard, PM Shehbaz directed authorities to develop a dashboard that would help ensure effective monitoring of the transportation and supply of petroleum products across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Attaullah Tarar, Jam Kamal Khan, Ali Pervaiz Malik and Awais Leghari attended the meeting.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor and chief secretaries of all four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit Baltistan, also participated in the meeting.

The high-level meeting was convened amid concerns from market experts that petroleum product prices could rise in the country after the conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel spread across the Middle East.

Speaking to The News, industry officials had said the situation could become "worse than imagined" for both supplies and prices of energy products if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.

The concerns stem from Iran's announcement earlier in the week that no vessels belonging to the US, Israel, European countries or their allies would be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, after US and Israel launched an assault on Tehran on February 28.

Amid concerns over a possible fuel shortage in the country, Ogra on Thursday warned of strict action against the illegal hoarding of petroleum products.

In a statement, an Ogra spokesperson said: "Any premises found involved in the illegal storage of petroleum products will be sealed."

In view of the prevailing geopolitical situation, the official said that the authorities are closely monitoring the petroleum supply chain to ensure the uninterrupted availability of products across the country.