Oil and gas companies violating Ogra decisions: PEW

Lahore: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said oil and gas companies are violating decisions of Ogra to maximise profits on the cost of consumers.

Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has started bypassing oil and gas regulator in favour of oil and gas companies which amounts to following the footsteps of the former petroleum minister Dr. Asim, it said.

Oil and gas companies continue to use energy crisis to mint money while the regulator has intentionally been kept impotent since long, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.

In a statement issued here today, he said that Ogra quorum was kept incomplete for years while a number of incompetent officials were posted there to make it weak so that it could not impose critical decisions.

Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that SNGPL and SSGC hasn’t accepted a single important decision of the regulator while it has challenged almost every decision regarding tariff to maximise its undue profits.

Recently Ogra recommended a cut of Rs 7.00 in the prices of petrol but government only reduced prices by Rs 1.00 only violating basic rights of masses, he added.

This tendency is very dangerous as gas is very import part of the energy mix catering for 50 percent of the energy requirements. Power generations sector is using 33 percent of the total natural gas output while domestic consumers are using 23 percent of the total production.

Fertiliser sector is consuming 13 percent of gas, industry is utilising the same amount while nine percent of the gas is being used by transport sector, he informed.

Scarcity of gas compels many power plants to suspend operations while reduced supply to urea sector forces government for imports which wastes foreign exchange.

Now oil and gas companies are using LNG import to generate undue profits on the cost of economy which should not be allowed lest it hurt project and growth rate, Dr. Mughal warned. He said that government continue to spend heavily on Ogra therefore this institutions should be allowed to work or be closed down.