State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said that Pakistan has 20 days of petrol reserves and 29 days of diesel reserves on Thursday, as reports of hoarding emerge from multiple places across the country.

“The prime minister has instructed that there should be no shortage of fuel in the country,” Malik said in a press conference.

’I apologise to anyone who has faced a fuel shortage recently on behalf of the PM,“ he said.

He said that raids across Punjab to recover oil from private storages are continuing. He added that he had asked the oil companies to smooth out the mechanism of getting fuel from storages to pumps, so full storage capacity is made availabale to public.

Police raids continue

The police in the Punjab province raided multiple oil depots involved in hoarding petrol and diesel amid reports of fuel shortage on Thursday.

The oil marketing companies (OMCs), meanwhile, have refuted claims that they were failing to meet the demand.

Motorists in Punjab and parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have been experiencing fuel shortages for the past few days. Long queues were seen at filling stations, with some of the pumps introducing a cap on the quantity of fuel being sold each consumer.

The ‘shortage’ was reported after news outlets reported that the government was going to impose an additional levy on petrol and diesel to implement the conditions set by the IMF for the next loan tranche.

The government is already charging a petroleum development levy (PDL) on petrol at a fixed rate of Rs50 per litre.

A spokesperson for the petroleum dealers – that is the pump owners – said on Thursday that oil marketing companies had curtailed supply to the pumps and this had caused the shortage.

Reacting to a statement from State Petroleum Minister Musaddik Malik, the spokesperson, Noman Butt, said that the government was blaming its incompetence on the petroleum dealers.

Earlier this week, Musaddik warned petrol pump owners against holding back stocks saying the government will act against the hoarders.

Butt said the state minister should check the storage facilities of the OMCs. It is the responsibility of the OMCs to supply petrol and diesel to pumps, he said.

The government did make good on its words and launched an operation against depots hoarding petrol and diesel on Thursday.

Two depots were sealed in Patoki and Kasur with Rs330 million worth of petrol and diesel stocks, Aaj News reported.

Police also seized around two dozen oil tankers.

The depot in Patoki was found storing 1.3 million litres of fuel illegally.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Oil Marketing Companies Association, Tariq Wazir Ali, said on Thursday that there was no shortage of petrol and diesel in the country.

He said the 33 OMCs operating in the country were maintaining stocks for at least 20 days.

Tariq said that barring a few exceptions, petrol pumps across the country were receiving supplies and if any of them refused to sell petrol or diesel the government should act against them.

He also said that an artificial shortage was created following rumors about a possible price hike.