LAHORE, May 25: Oil supply crisis hit the city hard on Wednesday when most petrol pumps in Lahore ran out of supplies and long queues were witnessed at filling stations which still had some stocks left.

According to the city dealers, they had been getting only 25 to 30 per cent for the last few days because circular debt in the energy sector has hit every stakeholder hard. The refineries stopped refining oil as the oil distribution companies failed to pay them.

Apart from the two-day weekly holiday of natural gas supplies, this Sunday turned out to be an “undeclared holiday,” thus making its three-day gas supply gap.

The burden was thus transferred to oil, quickly consuming whatever stocks the stations had.

“The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) controls around 65 per cent market share and any supply squeeze on its part turns the market topsy-turvy,” says one of the dealer from the city.

The company has started telling its dealers that the ship carrying oil from Kuwait had docked at Karachi and things should improve in the next few days. It would take two to three days for supplies to reach up country, if everything goes well, he said.

So, it would take 48 to 72 hours to ease the situation in the city. — Staff Reporter