Government aims for more oil from refineries and more oil imports, promises to stop stock cheating.
By Mahnoor | 21-07-2026
ISLAMABAD: With rising tensions between the US and Iran, Pakistan’s government has made a three-part plan. This plan includes increasing refinery production, bringing in more oil imports, and taking action against oil marketing companies (OMCs) for cheating on oil storage.
Reports say OMCs have cheated with about 300,000 metric tons of stored oil. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has sent warning notices to Fazaia Oil, Inam, Askar, Shell, Attock, Hascol, Flow, and Puma (47,000 metric tons of field stock) for breaking the rule that requires them to keep more than 21 days of oil stock.
An investigation is ongoing into the manipulation of nearly 300,000 metric tons of stock at six depots—PSO Machike, GO Keamari, Attock Shikarpur, PSO Mehmood Kot, Rawalpindi, and others—through offtake or adjustments within a single week. Enforcement teams led by Ogra have been sent to various areas to inspect and instruct district authorities to actively monitor field and retail operations.
Currently, several key factors are affecting market conditions. A price increase is expected due to the conflict between the US and Iran, along with limited illegal product inflows from western borders. Oil supply has also been disrupted because three ships carrying 161,000 tons missed their scheduled arrivals, causing a reduction in existing inventories.
Also, oil from bonded terminals like Mehmood Kot, Faisalabad, and Machike was not easily available. These issues caused an imbalance in the oil supply, raising sales for top oil companies by 14% to 68% compared to July plans.
Sources told that the government made a plan to increase oil supply nationwide. As part of this, Ogra started an anti-hoarding effort with local authorities, using data from their dashboard.
Sources said ships carrying 204,000 tons of fuel are coming to Pakistan and will arrive in 10 days. Ships with 42,000 tons have already docked. The government told refineries to make more petrol in July and August. Also, all pipeline-linked fuel stocks of oil companies will be cleared quickly by Papco, Parco, and Customs.
The regulator allowed state-run oil company Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to bring in more fuel at the end of July to refill its petrol stocks. Oil companies must watch for any unusual high sales of petrol and diesel at their stations. Refineries were told to increase diesel production over the next 15 days to make up for a loss of 35,000 tons. PSO also got permission to bring in two diesel shipments from Kuwait Petroleum in August to meet national needs and refill stocks. But shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will be hard due to the world situation.
Refineries have been told to buy more crude oil in July and August to make more diesel and petrol because the profit difference is growing and the country’s fuel supply is running low.
Sales of petrol and diesel went up a lot in July compared to what was expected. The planned petrol sales were 295,000 tons, but actual sales were 356,000 tons, which is 61,000 tons or 21% more. Daily petrol sales were estimated at 21,000 tons but actually averaged 25,400 tons.
For HSD, expected sales were 229,000 tons, but actual sales were 329,000 tons, a difference of 100,000 tons, or 44%. Daily HSD sales were estimated at 16,000 tons but averaged 23,500 tons.
Current reported MS stocks are 416,000 tons, which cover 17 days of demand at a consumption rate of 25,000 tons per day. Meanwhile, HSD stocks are 463,000 tons, which can meet 20 days of consumption at a rate of 24,000 tons per day.
Ogra is cracking down on fuel hoarding, and they are taking action against suspected gas stations and oil companies, using legal power under the Oil Rules 2016. So far, the regulator has checked 1,922 stations and sent warning notices to eight oil companies.
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