HDIP to spend Rs 892.236 million on upgradation of testing facilities

Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) will spend Rs 892.236 million on upgradation of its testing facilities across the country to ensure provision of quality fuel to consumers. The HDIP under two projects - at a cost of Rs 457.766 million and Rs 434.47 million - will upgrade Karachi Laboratories Complex (KLC) in two years, and testing facilities at Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and ISO Certification of Petroleum Testing Laboratory Islamabad in three years.
The projects were approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, and have incorporated in the Public Sector Development Programme 2017-18. KLC would be transformed into a state-of-the-art laboratory equipped with a complete range of the latest POL products' testing facilities to ensure fuel quality.
At present, HDIP tests the quality of petroleum products imported by oil marketing companies and industrial consumers at its Karachi laboratory prior to unloading cargo. The project will increase the capacity of KLC to test samples of imported POL products from ships, inspect and collect samples from all oil marketing companies' terminals and depots, refineries, lube oil blending plants, lube oil reclamation plants, grease and transformer oil plants.
In the second project HDIP will upgrade its laboratories in Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta for testing locally produced and imported petroleum products like gasoline, diesel oils, furnace oil, transformer oil, lubricating oil and grease, the sources added.
Sources further said the two projects were approved in the backdrop of allegations of dubious examination by the state-run HDIP. Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) - a body that mainly comprises refining and marketing companies - approached the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, and sought permission to hire a third party to counter-check the HDIP test results.
In various instances, OCAC complained to the Petroleum Minister; in one instance a sample was declared off-specification in the first test by HDIP but the second sample was found to be on-specification, though both the samples were taken at the same time. OCAC argued that the contradiction led to a delay in the discharge of cargo from anchored vessels and importers were forced to pay unnecessary demurrage charges. Consequently, consumers were burdened with hefty costs.