thefridaynews Beyond Price Notifications: A National Reset for Pakistan’s LPG Market By Owais Mir | August 19, 2026 The decision before the Prime Minister and the Minister for Petroleum is not what LPG should cost for one month. It is whether Pakistan will build a market capable of delivering an honest price, secure supply, and safe fuel throughout the year in a sustainable manner. For millions of households beyond the natural-gas network, as well as restaurants, small businesses, and industrial users, liquefied petroleum gas is essential energy. Yet the public debate still begins and ends with a monthly price notification—far too narrow a response to a structural market problem. A notified price cannot protect consumers when imports are weakly documented, local and imported costs create arbitrage, terminal storage is insufficient, licenses are held without serious operating capacity, and unsafe cylinders remain in circulation. References to an LPG “mafia” cannot substitute for regulation. Pakistan needs a federal market reset built around seven key decisions. The Policy Reset: Seven DecisionsCreate One Transparent Pricing Framework:Pakistan needs one coherent national pricing framework for locally produced and imported LPG, without concealing their different costs. OGRA should publish source-wise price build-ups for indigenous production, seaborne imports, and land-route imports, and determine a consumer reference price or monitored corridor from the weighted supply mix. Taxes, duties, and policy charges should be rationalised to remove unintended arbitrage, while vulnerable households should receive targeted support rather than a blanket subsidy that weakens the market signal. Curb Indiscriminate Growth of Storage and Filling Plants:More terminal storage does not justify indiscriminate growth of small storage and filling plants. Before licensing further capacity, OGRA should complete a national and provincial assessment of demand, existing utilisation, transport routes, emergency coverage, zoning, fire protection, and population exposure by digitalizing the sector. New facilities should be encouraged in underserved areas and paused in saturated locations. Pakistan should not repeat the CNG experience: unchecked expansion can produce financially distressed plants, weaker safety incentives, and coercive commercial relationships with distributors. Need-based planning protects both responsible investment and public safety. Build Strategic Storage at Terminals and Key Inland Hubs:Pakistan requires additional storage where it strengthens national resilience: at import terminals, bonded facilities, and strategic inland hubs. An evidence-based minimum stock obligation should reflect seasonal demand, import lead times, logistics, and emergency needs, while terminal capacity should be available on transparent, non-discriminatory terms. Verified inventory and automatic measurement would allow the government to identify supply risks before shortages and price spikes reach consumers. Lock in Imports Through a Government-Supported Supply Plan:Imports should follow a rolling national demand-supply balance approved by the Petroleum Division, supported by pre-qualified suppliers, predictable procurement windows, quality verification, port and foreign-exchange coordination, bonded storage where appropriate, and an emergency mechanism before winter pressure arrives. Every imported tonne should be digitally traced from contract, customs value, and product specification to terminal receipt, storage, and onward sale—giving Customs, FBR, OGRA, and the Petroleum Division one integrated record, similar to the oil supply chain. Move from ~500 Fragmented Entities to ~40 Accountable Operators:The licensing and trading universe is widely described within the industry as comprising roughly 500 entities across the chain. OGRA should publish an authoritative audit and progressively rationalise the active marketing and importing segment towards about 40 technically capable, well-capitalised, and traceable corporate operators. Renewal should depend on audited accounts, tax compliance, disclosed ownership, storage access, trained personnel, digital reporting, quality controls, and safety performance. This must be a transparent qualification exercise—not arbitrary cancellation or a route to oligopoly—with legitimate distributors remaining registered. A licence must be an operating obligation, not a tradable “plot file.” Use Bulk LPG and LPG AIR MIX (SNG) as Tactical Balancing Tools:Bulk LPG and synthetic natural gas (SNG) produced through LPG-air mixing can serve off-grid communities, commercial clusters, and selected industrial users, while helping manage seasonal or local shortages. They should remain tactical tools, supported by project-specific economics, safety controls, transparent tariffs, controlling deforestation/climate change effects, performance benchmarks, and periodic review—not permanent substitutes for reform of the wider gas and LPG markets in strategic terms. Make Cylinder and Supply-Chain Safety Non-Negotiable:A substandard cylinder and attached accessories are a serious hazard. OGRA, PSQCA, provincial authorities, and law-enforcement agencies should operate one cylinder-safety programme covering approved design, manufacturer identification, digital serialisation, periodic testing, recall, and verified destruction of condemned stock. Large or non-standard cylinders should not reach consumers without certified fitness, while cross-filling, illegal decanting, counterfeit valves, and roadside filling should attract meaningful permanent penalties. Safety performance must directly affect license renewal. The Way ForwardThe Prime Minister should direct a time-bound LPG Market Reform Programme, led by the Minister for Petroleum and jointly delivered by the Petroleum Division, OGRA, Finance and Commerce Divisions, FBR/Customs, PSQCA, the Competition Commission, and provincial authorities. First 30 Days: Publish one national demand-supply balance, source-wise price build-up, licence audit, storage map, and cylinder-safety baseline. By Day 60: Approve the pricing framework, import calendar, operator qualification criteria, and strategic-stock methodology. By Day 100: Launch end-to-end digital traceability, risk-based licence renewal, and a national cylinder testing and recall campaign. Next 12–24 Months: Complete qualification-based consolidation, commission priority terminal storage, enforce minimum stocks, and review SNG and bulk-LPG schemes, publishing progress on a public dashboard. Success should be measured not by notifications or licences, but by whether consumers receive safe LPG at a price reflecting real costs, winter demand is met from visible stocks, imports are traceable from invoice to end-user, and unsafe or speculative operators can no longer exploit regulatory gaps. LPG is called the poor man’s fuel; that description carries an obligation to make it available, honestly priced, and safe. Pakistan does not need another isolated notification or a new policy—it needs institutional discipline from import contract to consumer cylinder in an end-to-end manner. About the Author: Owais Mir is a leading entrepreneur in Pakistan’s energy and engineering sector. The views expressed in this article are personal.
