OGRA asked to rationalize regulatory framework
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Tuesday directed Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to rationalize the regulatory framework to facilitate the nascent auto sector LPG usage.
The LPG is a clean, efficient and environment friendly fuel with a wide range of applications in commercial, industries and households as a substitute for natural gas. "This fuel can also be used in the automotive sector as economically viable alternative to other hydrocarbons," he said while inaugurating a day long second annual LPG Conference and Exhibition here.
The Conference and Exhibition was organized by LPG Association of Pakistan. He expressed the confidence that wide spread use of LPG in auto sector will soften the rude impact of rising prices of petroleum products. The Minister said science deregulation, Pakistan's LPG sector has shown tremendous growth in terms of rising number of LPG producers, importers, LPG marketing companies and LPG distributors.
Thanks to deregulation, about US$200 million has been invested across the LPG value chain and given the robust growth dynamics of the sector, more investments are expected to continue, he added. Khawaja Asif said he was also looking forward to additional investments in setting up of dedicated LPG auto gas stations and LPG production plants which are dormant for the moment, so that the ungasified areas are served in the like manner.
However, it has been noted that LPG availability has been confined to urban centers, despite Government's clear objectives and directives to supply mandatory quota to the Northern hilly areas, AJK, interior Sindh and Baluchistan and FATA. He also pointed out that LPG marketing companies are not faithfully implementing these policy measures and the regulatory mechanism of OGRA is also not pursuing the defaulting LPG marketing companies.
The Minister observed that LPG consumer prices are normally not stable due to demand supply gap and in this connection the focus of our Government will be to realize additional LPG production from the developing gas fields. The local production of LPG can be increased by another 900 metric tonper day if the development of the dormant fields is fast tracked by the concerned exploration and production companies.
He said mere policy measures, howsoever effective and efficacious cannot achieve the intended outcome, without being effectively monitored and implemented by regulator. Therefore, he urged upon OGRA to step up their activities to check the malpractices of decanting, underfilling and cross filling of LPG cylinders to save the life, limb and property of the LPG users.
He also asked LPG marketing companies to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities and must concentrate on the economy of scale for earning their profit rather than concentrating on demand management measures.