ABDUL RASHEED AZAD

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has urged the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to approve provisional Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) prices, reliable sources told Business Recorder.

According to sources, the directorate General (DG) Gas of Petroleum Ministry wrote a letter dated April 21 to the regulator, requesting a temporary approval of LNG prices for different sectors until the government amends the Petroleum Levy Act of 1961; but the regulator in reply requested the government to provide the price at which LNG has been procured from Qatar and the transport cost for it with a view to enabling it to determine the final price for different consumers.

In addition, Ogra is dysfunctional at present as its quorum with only two members is incomplete. Member Finance is implicated in the Tauqir Sadiq case and is therefore made dysfunctional while the government has yet to appoint member oil even after the lapse of six months.

“Different consumers including power plants and fertilizer plants have consumed to first shipment of LNG but no one has paid the price so far because the regulator has not approved provisional prices, so nobody not even those who were supplied know the rate at which they bought the commodity,” sources said. To address the LNG price issue the government wants to amend the Petroleum Products (Petroleum Levy) Ordinance 1961 to declare the Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) as a petroleum product so that the commodity price can be determined in line with the prevailing practice for petrol/diesel pricing on a monthly basis, sources added.