PM Shehbaz reviews OGRA reform plan, orders quick rollout

July 31, 2026 (MLN): The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) is set for a major institutional overhaul after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday ordered wide-ranging reforms aimed at tightening oversight of the petroleum sector, improving transparency and building the regulator's technical capacity.

The directives were given at a high-level session on OGRA's restructuring and digitisation, attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Ministers Azam Nazeer Tarar, Dr Musadik Malik, Ahad Khan Cheema, Attaullah Tarar, Shaza Fatima Khawaja and Ali Pervaiz Malik, Special Assistant Tariq Bajwa, and other senior officials, APP reported.

Chairing the meeting, the prime minister maintained that reforms being rolled out across government departments must apply equally to OGRA, and asked officials to design a countrywide system to track fuel movement, modelling it on the digital tracking mechanism already in use at the Federal Board of Revenue.

He also pressed for deployment of modern software to keep the petroleum supply chain under constant digital watch  spanning ports, refineries and retail outlets  so that irregularities could be caught early.

On staffing, PM Shehbaz asked that seasoned private-sector professionals be brought in through a transparent, merit-based hiring process to shore up OGRA's technical capacity, pledging full government backing for the exercise.

He added that every rupee belonging to the public exchequer would be protected and cautioned that no quarter would be given to those attempting to profiteer at the expense of consumers.

Regulatory bodies more broadly were told to formalise coordination channels with their parent ministries, while the prime minister also called for faster progress on refinery upgrades under the government's existing policy framework.

OGRA's chairman used the session to walk participants through the authority's performance, the obstacles it faces, and a reform roadmap now under consideration.

He noted that several digital tools are already live, among them the National Monitoring Dashboard, a Tanker Track and Trace System, Depot Tank Telemetry, the Rahguzar mobile app, a Digital Sales Entry System at fuel stations, and a Central Monitoring Cell  all aimed at giving regulators real-time visibility over fuel from the point of transport through to retail sale.

Participants were also told that an enforcement drive built on this data, run through July 2026, had flagged several instances of hoarding, artificial supply gaps and other violations, prompting show-cause notices, demands for explanation, and legal action in some cases.

Beyond enforcement, the meeting took stock of a wider reform plan for OGRA covering full digitalisation, an overhauled enforcement structure, a new compliance wing, changes to the licensing regime, stronger legal handling, improved finances and a reorganised institutional setup.

Endorsing the plan, PM Shehbaz directed that the digital monitoring framework be brought fully online without delay to choke off hoarding and profiteering and guarantee transparency across the sector.

Uninterrupted fuel supply and fair consumer pricing, he said, remain non-negotiable priorities, and neither negligence nor corruption would be tolerated  instructing concerned ministries to fast-track every legal, administrative and policy step needed to modernise the regulatory framework.

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