ISLAMABAD: Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) has asked the federal government to immediately intervene to ensure the timely issuance of letters of credit to import petroleum products to avoid a fuel shortage in the country.
The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) wrote a letter on behalf of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and refineries highlighting challenges being faced due to delays in the opening of letters of credit (LCs) for the import of petroleum products.
Due to the non-opening of the LCs few oil cargos have been canceled.
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Pakistan needs to import approximately 430,000 metric tonnes ( MTs) of mogas, 200,000 MTs of High Speed Diesel (HSD) and 650,000 MTs of crude oil every month, which costs around $1.3 billion.
“If LCs are not established on a timely basis, critical imports of petroleum products would be impacted which may lead to fuel shortage in the country. It may be noted that if the supply chain is compromised, it may take six to eight weeks to normalise,” OCAC said in the letter.
