TEXT: Functionality and Visibility of OGRA: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) was established by the Federal Government on March 28, 2002 in pursuance of the OGRA Ordinance, 2002. The objective of OGRA is to “foster competition, increase private investment and ownership in the midstream and downstream petroleum industry, protect the public interest while respecting individual rights and provide effective and efficient regulations”.
OGRA has constantly been assisting the Federal Government on Energy Regulated activities since 2002 and has been facilitating Prime Ministers, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE), Cabinet Division, Ministry of Energy, Senate Standing Committees, National Assembly Standing Committees and Public Accounts Committees, etc.
Gas Sector: The main highlights related to Gas Sector for 2021-23:
Determination of Revenue Requirements of Gas Utility companies
Grant of license to Tabeer Energy (Pvt.) Ltd. TEPL for construction and operation of 28” diameter x approx. 24 Km long natural gas pipeline for transportation of Natural Gas/RL- NG.
Grant of 06 licenses for sale of Flare Gas to following companies:
Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd. (OGDCL)
Hitech Pipe & Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd.
Mari Petroleum Company Ltd.
Pakistan Gas Port
Vitol Resources Pakistan Pvt. Ltd.
Ghazi Gas Marketing & Distribution Pvt. Ltd.
Approval of 24 agreements related to gas sale/- purchase were made.
CNG Sector: The main highlights related to CNG Sector for 2021-23:
41 Provisional /Construction licenses were issued to all new applicants based on RLNG.
02 Marketing licenses were issued to CNG Stations for RLNG.
Renewal of existing 1307 Licenses have been issued for a further period of 5 years after completion of the requisite formalities under OGRA Ordinance/CNG Rules, 1992. However, most of these are operationally closed due to gas shortage in the country.
109 permissions were granted to CNG Stations for installation of petrol pumps.
The operational CNG Stations were inspected annually by the OGRA’s designated Third Party inspectors to verify that the CNG stations meet the requirements as laid down in the CNG Rules, 1992 to ensure safety.
LNG Sector: The main highlights related to LNG
Sector for 2021-23:
Presently 02 LNG re-gasification terminals are operational namely; Engro Elengy terminal (EETL) and Pakistan Gasport Consortium Limited (PGPCL).
02 permissions for development of new LNG terminals have been issued in respect of Energas Terminal Pvt. Ltd and Tabeer Energy Pvt. Ltd.
05 Licenses have been issued for LNG Virtual Pipeline; in respect of LNG Easy Pvt. Ltd., Daewoo Gas Pvt. Ltd., LNG Flex Ltd., Cygnus Energy and Gwadar Gasport Pvt Ltd.
Moreover, 05 new applications for the virtual pipeline projects have been received in OGRA for issuance of provisional license which are under consideration.
OGRA has also drafted LNG Terminal & Storage Access Rules and Code with the assistance of World Bank.
OGRA has also conducted webinars on LNG to have a knowledge sharing session wherein all the stakeholders were given an opportunity to give a short presentation highlighting the status of the LNG/gas market as per their domain and pinpoint issues being faced by them.
LPG Sector: The main highlights related to LPG Sector for 2021-23:
64 licenses were issued for construction of LPG Storage & Filling Plants.
In addition to that 62 licenses were issued for starting the marketing and operation of Storage, Filling and Marketing of LPG.
01 license was issued for LPG air-mix plant (operational).
02 Licenses were issued for construction of LPG Auto Refueling Station.
02 operational licenses for Storage & Refueling of LPG were issued (Auto-refueling).
15 licenses for 113 LPG Bowsers were issued for transportation of LPG through Road Bowsers.
09 authorization / enlistment of manufacturers of LPG equipment were made.
Oil Sector: The main highlights related to Oil Sector for 2021-23:
OGRA granted permission to 07 companies to initiate marketing of petroleum products after fulfilling their obligation of constructing oil storage infrastructure.
18 licenses were granted to Lubricant Marketing Companies.
04 licenses were granted for construction of new lube oil plants.
Oil Marketing Companies were granted permissions to construct Oil Storage/Terminals at different locations i.e. Attock, Mirpurkhas,Okara, Tarrujaba, Vehari, Sarai Norang, Faisalabad, Juglot, Kasur, Sahiwal, Habibabad, Mehmoodkot, Machike, Daulatpur, Port Qasim, Shikarpur, Nowshera, Faqirabad and Thalian.
Around 350000 M.Ton petrol storage and around 200,000 M.Ton Diesel storage capacity added.
Oil Pricing: The main highlights related to Oil Pricing for 2021-23:
Pursuant to ECC decision OGRA reviewed and forwarded PDC claims worth Rs.240 billion of Oil Industry to PSO for disbursement to concerned OMCs and Refineries.
OGRA is in process of determining the tariff for FOC-I white oil pipeline from Machike to Thallian and Tarujabba.
OGRA manages and determines inland freight equalization margin (IFEM) for regulated petroleum products.
OGRA also determines/computes ex-refinery/ex-depot price of Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO) & Ethanol being regulator, OGRA reviews the MS & HSD price computation of PSO and forwards the same to FG for its final decision through revision in taxes/levies on fortnightly basis.
Gas Pricing &Other Notifications: The main highlights related to Gas Pricing for 2021-23:
Determination of Revenue Requirement of SNGPL & SSGCL 16
Notification of Gas Sale Price 01
Determination of Transportation Tariff of Transmission and Distribution System of SNGPL 02
Notification of Wellhead Gas Price 353
Notification of LPG Price 24
Notification of RLNG Price 24
Complaints under Prime Minister Citizen Portal: 631 complaints have been resolved in the FY 2021-2023.
Complaints under Access to Information Act 2017:
In the F.Y 2021-23: a total of 15 complaints have been received during the period and were facilitated with relevant information.
Complaints under CRPR 2003: In the F.Y 2021-23: OGRA has received 12,161 complaints and granted relief of Rs. 332.04millions to general public. Appeals received in OGRA: 113 appeals have been received in OGRA against the decisions of Designated Officers and a number of 248 appeals were decided during the period including the pending cases.
OGRA IT Section: OGRA has successfully installed E-office and File Tracking System.
OGRA has established regional offices in provincial capitals to facilitate general public.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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