OGRA provides Rs107 million relief to complainants

ISLAMABAD: Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has provided around Rs107 million relief to consumers by addressing their complaints against two state companies, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) during the last fiscal year.

The authority received 7,082 complaints, out of which it decided 5,909 and granted gas connections to 635 complainants besides provided Rs106.93 million relief to consumers by removing their grievances, according to OGRA’s Annual Performance Report 2018-19.

OGRA deals with the complaints against licence holders under the Complaint Resolution Procedure Regulations-2002, without any fee, which can be sent through email, online, fax and normal post.

During the period under review, the regulatory body granted nine licences to establish new Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), which would bring around Rs4.5 billion investment for construction of oil storage infrastructure in next three years.

Besides, the permission was granted to six companies to initiate marketing of petroleum products after fulfilling their obligation of constructing oil storage infrastructure.

“New entrants in the marketing arena will increase the competitions, which will ultimately benefit the consumers,” the authority, established in the year 2002, with the objective to “foster competition, increase private investment in the midstream and downstream petroleum industry, said.

Similarly, it granted various permissions to OMCs and other companies for operations of their newly constructed oil storages and terminals at different locations including Sahiwal, Habibabad, Mehmoodkot, Machike, Daulatpur, Port Qasim, Shikarpur, Kotlajam and Pattoki, “The addition of new oil storage will strengthen the oil supply infrastructure and back-up storage system of the country.”

OGRA also issued a licence for construction of a new oil refinery, having capacity to refine 200,000 barrels oil per day, for a period of five years.

The facility would help enhance the country’s refining capacity with corresponding decrease in the import demand of refined oil products in future.

In the field of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), the authority issued around 96 licences for operations, marketing of LPG storage and filling plants, construction of LPG auto refueling stations, storage and refueling of LPG, construction of LPG air-mix plants and distribution of air-mix LPG through, LPG storage and handling terminals, and setting up LPG production and storage facility besides authorizing two manufacturers to produce LPG equipment.