Pakistan Cracks Down on LPG Hoarding Ahead of Winter Demand Surge

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has initiated a sweeping crackdown against the suspected hoarding of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) designed to engineer artificial shortages and inflate consumer rates ahead of the peak winter season, directing regulatory and law enforcement bodies to launch immediate market interventions.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) issued urgent directives to provincial administrations and terminal authorities after alarming reports revealed domestic LPG cylinders were trading at nearly Rs5,000 per 11.8kg unit—over 50 percent above the state-notified ceiling of Rs3,296. In a formal communication dispatched to the Ogra chairman, the Petroleum Division warned that while importers continue to secure sufficient supply volumes aligned with national consumption forecasts, substantial shipments remain stagnant at import terminals, pointing to deliberate market withholding.

The unfolding bottleneck threatens to intensify financial distress for millions of low-income and remote households that lack piped natural gas infrastructure and rely entirely on commercial cylinders for basic heating and cooking. With cold weather already driving up household energy usage across northern regions and Balochistan, regulatory officials warned that unchecked speculative activity by distribution cartels could ignite acute localized supply panics, further compounding broader inflationary pressures across the domestic retail landscape.

Provincial chief secretaries and district price-monitoring committees have now been instructed to conduct inspections at key decanting points, secondary storage hubs, and retail outlets to enforce official pricing schedules. Simultaneously, federal port operators have been ordered to expedite terminal clearances and monitor off-take logistics, with the Petroleum Division warning license cancellations and legal proceedings against errant distributors found manipulating commercial supply lines.