The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has written a letter to the Punjab chief secretary asking him to take action against those illegally hoarding petrol and diesel stocks.

The move came after reports emerged of shortages at petrol pumps in several cities of the province.

In a letter, Ogra’s Senior Executive Director - Enforcement Sohail Ahmed Tariq wrote that the authority had identified, through market intelligence, locations in Punjab that “might be in use to dump/store products for inventory gains”.

These 19 locations were contributing to the existing shortage of petroleum products in different cities of Punjab, thereby committing illegal acts, he added.

The letter asked the Punjab chief secretary to take immediate action against the culprits to prevent inconvenience for the public.

A number of petrol pumps in several major and small cities of Punjab have been facing a severe shortage of petrol. The situation is particularly troubling in some major cities, including Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, where several petrol pumps have either no or meager supply of petrol for the last many days allegedly due to squeezed supply from oil marketing companies (OMCs).