The Oil Company Advisory Council (OCAC) has alleged the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) of ignoring the big shots of the oil industry on Price Differential Claim (PDC) & Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM), promotion of a nonentity and small companies as key stakeholders.
In a letter written to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, the Oil Company Advisory Council (OCAC) said that no meeting of the regulator took place with the major shareholders of the oil industry and instead a nonentity is being projected as a major player in the industry and called this projection alarming and unacceptable.
Belying the OGRA’s claims of meeting with leading Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan (OMAP), the OCAC has asked OGRA to name the “leading” OMCs that attended the meeting.
It is worth mentioning here, that on Wednesday, OGRA had claimed to conduct a meeting with leading OMCs and OMAP on Price Differential Claim (PDC), IFEM, and other matters.
The copy of the letter available with the scribe said that OCAC and its major member companies controlling more than 85 percent of the market share were unaware of any such meeting. These news reports are giving undue credit to a nonentity despite the fact that OCAC along with its member companies has been coordinating with OGRA and Ministry of Energy Petroleum Division (MEPD) on war footing to manage the current “Price Differential Claim (PDC) regime” and supply chain issues being faced by the country. It said that the nonentity was inactive before the finalization of the procedure for reimbursement of PDC.
The letter said that IFEM is being convened by OCAC and its member companies since its inception. The said nonentity does not even possess relevant expertise and yet the news reports claim that matters related to PDC and IFEM were discussed. Despite the above, the nonentity is being projected as a major player in the industry, this projection is alarming and unacceptable.
We would also like to highlight that despite the fact that OCAC had no role in the mechanism for reimbursement of PDC approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), OGRA has included it in the same. OCAC has accepted this inclusion despite serious reservations of its Executive Committee. However, such news reports seem to be underplaying the role of OCAC and are unduly promoting a nonentity as a key stakeholder. We request you to look into the matter and issue a rebuttal for said news reports at the earliest.
