By Muhammad Luqman
About a half year after the killing of over 250 people in an oil tanker inferno in central Pakistan town of Ahmad pur Sharqia, the state owned oil marketing company, PSO has launched latest brand of tank lorry that will ensure safe transportation of petroleum products across Pakistan.
Most of the victims were reportedly looting the oil from the capsized tanker when it caught fire on June 25 this year.
The newly built PSO tank lorry complies fully with the standards set by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and National Highways Authority (NHA), according Managing Director of Pakistan State Oil, Sheikh Imranul Haque.
Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO) is the oil market leader with over 60 percent share in the white oil and even bigger slice in furnace oil and other oil products. The company is engaged in the import, storage, distribution, and marketing of various petroleum products to its customers in defence, power, retail, industrial, aviation and marine sectors.
PSO contracts Pakistan’s largest tank lorry (TLS) fleet as part of its logistics management system to transport POL products across the country using approximately 8000 vehicles. The newly introduced tank lorries are designed to ensure the security of the public and the road infrastructure.
“Every year PSO moves over 12000 million tons petroleum products using the country’s largest infrastructure network consisting of road, rail and pipelines. The transportation of POL products is heavily dependent on roads. Such reliance on road transportation requires a highly safe tank lorry that not only meets regulatory requirements, but also ensures integrity of the product, the public and the road infrastructure.” MD PSO claimed.
“Furthermore, in view of CPEC project and new opportunities of business, our business partners have to invest in this fleet. Tank lorry not compliant with the latest standards, will not be allowed to cross the border in future”, he warned.
In Pakistan , around 30 petrol marketing companies are operating but most of the business is in the hands of PSO and couple of multinational firms.
