GO Pakistan Threatens to Halt Oil Quota Lift

Aftab Maken

Islamabad: GO Pakistan, a subsidiary of Saudi oil giant Aramco, has threatened the regulator that it will not lift its oil quota from local refineries.

The tug of war between the regulator-Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), and Go Pakistan has erupted when the regulator refused to allow it to import of high speed diesel.

Earlier, the Ogra has been allowing Go Pakistan and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) import of high speed diesel despite the fact that local refineries had sufficient stocks.

Sources say that Ogra had been allowing the import of HSD to GO Pakistan under pressure after shares of the latter were acquired by Saudi oil giant Aramco. ECC defers approving margins of OMCs, Weekly oil prices revision

The oil industry had been resisting Ogra’s decision to allow the import of diesel to Go Pakistan, but the regulator continued allowing it. Even after denying the import of diesel, Go Pakistan Limited turned against the chairman of Ogra and wrote a letter to the government alleging that he was not capable of dealing with the matters of the oil industry.

The oil industry had also accused the Go Pakistan of dumping oil into the market by offering higher discounts up to Rs 10 per liter, which had sparked the controversy.

It was also reported in the media that the regulator had created upheaval in the market by allowing the import of diesel to Go Pakistan Limited, which had been eating into the market share of state-owned oil firm Pakistan State Oil (PSO).

Now, sources say that Go Pakistan had also refused to attend the product review meeting held by the Ogra, which is aimed at reviewing the product availability situation, whether to allow the import of diesel and petrol or not.

Now, the Go Pakistan was in a tug of war with Ogra and refineries due to denying the import of diesel as it was threatening not to attend a meeting of the product review committee, and also refusing to lift oil from the oil refineries at the same time.

Saudi oil giant Aramco had been providing oil to GO Pakistan at discounted rates, and now the oil industry was afraid of it, saying that it was going to grab the market share of state-owned company Pakistan State Oil and other oil firms operating in the country.

Refineries have been struggling to convince the Ogra that they already have sufficient stocks and therefore, Go Pakistan should not be allowed to import diesel.

They argued that Go Pakistan should be bound to lift the oil quota from the oil refineries before allowing the import of diesel or imports. It has been offering discounts to the dealers up to Rs 10 per liter, which was even higher compared to Rs 8 per liter. Aramco had acquired a 40% equity stake in GO.

The writer is a senior journalist, and you can follow him on Twitter.