Months after severe country-wide oil shortages, the country’s oil refineries are raising red flags over lower uplifting of their refined products by oil marketing companies (OMCs), resulting in curtailment of capacity utilisation and crude production from oilfields. A senior government official said the OMCs had scaled down their upliftment of petroleum products following government’s decision to shift oil pricing to quarterly basis from monthly while substantial quantities of smuggled products had also made their way into the market. The refineries have been warning the government that continuation of the situation may force their closures and resultant product shortages later. He said the smuggling of Iranian oil products into the country, that had been controlled amid Covid-19 border closures leading to country-wide oil crisis, had resumed […]