Petrol shortage: Investigation committee blames three companies for the crisis

An investigation committee set up by the Ministry of Petroleum has blamed the private oil companies for the ongoing petrol crisis in the country in its initial report.

As per details, the committee sent an initial report to the Ministry of Petroleum stating that private oil companies were responsible for the current crisis, while PSO's oil terminals were operating 24 hours a day.

According to the report, before the crisis, the market share of PSO was 32 to 36 percent, but due to the supply of oil in the crisis, the share of PSO increased to 54 percent.

The report said that a private company had 54,000 metric tonnes of oil in the Port Qasim and Kemari oil fields with a petrol market share of between 9 and 14 percent, but due to non-supply of petrol, the company's share fell to 11.2 percent. Before the market share crisis, the diesel share of this company was 10.7pc, but in the crisis, the diesel share of this private company has fallen to 8.3pc.

According to the report, the other company had 43,000 metric tonnes of petrol in Kemari and Port Qasim oil fields. Its market share was 10.3pc before the crisis but dropped to 7.6pc during the crisis. However, its diesel share also decreased rose from 8.6pc to 5.7pc during the crisis.

The report of the inquiry committee further said that the third company had imported 3,000 metric tonnes of petrol on May 27. The company supplied 280 metric tonnes of petrol from May 27 to June 8, while it imported another 5,000 metric tonnes on June 6. However, the market share of the company has dropped from 2.3pc to 0.6pc in the crisis.

The report said that the three oil companies were involved in hoarding and black marketing, while the market share of another major oil company fell from 10.2pc to 6.1pc in the crisis and similarly the market share of other oil companies also declined significantly.