Tuesday’s fuel situation could well have been cited under the encyclopedia entry for Murphy’s Law. The day was one of the weekly off-days for CNG pumps; petrol and diesel were the only fuel options. But the Attock refinery had been shut down owing to a technical fault, the effects of which reached the market on Tuesday. As did, to make matters worse, the closure of the Byko refinery on account of non-payment of circular debt dues. The day saw many people running out of fuel while they were hunting for, ironically, fuel.
Such was the fate of many motorists across many cities in the Punjab and the federal capital. It is likely that the shortage will hit Karachi soon. And, as the residents of that powder keg of a city know all too well, there is potential for riots and killing in this situation seemingly unrelated to the tensions that besiege the city.
Though the government immediately reacted to the situation and made for arrangements, there have been several systemic errors that beg reform. First of all, though the Attock refinery’s closure was due to a technical error, the government had a glimpse of what was to come in Byko’s case. Remedial measures could have been taken. Secondly, storing the stuff as a contingency plan has become a necessary requirement. Apparently, that is, indeed, a regulation in place. In fact, the petroleum ministry has already instructed Ogra to issue show cause notices to certain companies for their failure to keep the required amount of petrol in store.
As the government moves to deregulate the oil sector, we can certainly expect others problems, if not non-availability. High prices would most certainly be one of them. The free market won’t set this right. Not only are the oil marketing companies ripe for cartelisation, expect the pumps to play dirty as well. The massive closure of petrol pumps around the cusps of government dictated price-hikes revealed that their profit motives know no fair play.
Hoping the government has thought this whole thing through.
This is what comes of depending heavily on oil for power generation. The problem as is being predicted. Should this not be an occasion for re-examining our priorities. Why do we continue to turn a blind eye to the hydel potential available to us for producing cheap, and clean, power. Kalabagh dam being the quickest way of achieving that goal. Bhasha dam will be too little, too late. It will only replace the storage and generation capacity lost at Mangla and Tarbela dams by the time it is commissioned 15 year hence. It will not irrigate even one additional acre of land or light one additional bulb.
The second line in my comment has got garbled:
‘The problem will be compounded when imported oil touches $120 per barrel as is being predicted’
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