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ISLAMABAD: The country’s oil industry on Tuesday rejected the unilateral imposition of a 6-12 month regulatory deadline for complete digital integration of more than 32,000 ground tanks, oil depots and petrol pumps across the country without any mechanism for Rs55 billion cost recovery.
In a formal letter to the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and the Petroleum Division, the Oil Companies’ Advisory Council (OCAC) — an association of more than three dozen oil companies and refineries — has pointed out technical and financial challenges and protested over ‘dictatorial’ instructions which could not be implemented as quickly. The Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan (OMAP), another industry association of smaller companies, also protested.
An industry executive told Dawn that an Ogra team led by Chairman Masroor Khan called a meeting with chief executive officers of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to be ready to face punitive action if they failed to digitally integrate 600 installations by Jan 31, 2026 and the remaining by Jan 31, 2027. There are a total of about 32,000 storage facilities, including ground tanks, oil tankers and retail pumps. All 16,000 pumps have to be digitally integrated by June 2026. Under the Auto Tank Gauging (ATG) system, all have to be linked to a central dashboard for complete visibility of every litre of petrol.
