OGRA stands for Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority. The Federal Government established the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on March 28, 2002, under the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002. OGRA’s mission is to “encourage competition, increase private investment and ownership in the midstream and downstream petroleum industries, protect the public interest while respecting individual rights, and provide effective and efficient regulations.” The authority is led by a Chairman/Chairperson and three Members, who are professionals with extensive experience in their respective fields: Member (Gas), Member (Finance), and Member (Oil). They can serve for a maximum of two terms before retiring at 65.

The OGRA absorbed the Natural Gas Regulatory Authority (NGRA) following its establishment. All NGRA properties and works were transferred to and protected under the OGRA Ordinance. As a result, OGRA was able to begin its natural gas functions almost immediately after its establishment.

OGRA Organization

OGRA is led by a Chairman/Chairperson and three Members who oversee authority-related gas, finance, and oil matters. Each member may serve for a maximum of two terms before retiring at 65. The federal government appoints the chairman and members through a competitive process on a tenure basis by the provisions of the OGRA Ordinance. Masroor Khan is the current chairman of OGRA, Muhammad Arif (Member Gas as of November 21, 2019), and Zain-ul-Abideen Qureshi (Member Oil from October 1, 2020).

Functions

The authority is given powers under Section 6 of the OGRA Ordinance. The OGRA has the sole authority to issue licenses for regulated activities in the natural gas, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), and oil sectors. These activities include pipeline construction, transmission, and distribution network development, natural gas sale and storage, installation, production, storage, transportation, and marketing of CNG, LPG, and LNG, pipeline laying, refinery establishment/operation, storage construction/operation, lube oil blending plants, and petroleum product marketing in the oil sector.

Some of the specific significant functions are as follows:

• Natural gas utilities’ revenue requirements and prescribed prices are determined, and consumer sale prices are notified.
• Calculates and notifies the ex-refinery price of SKO, the ex-depot costs of SKO and E-10, and the Inland Freight Equalization Margin (IFEM) for all products.
• Under the deregulated scenario, keep an eye on the pricing of petroleum products.
  Technical standards and specifications (best international practices) are enforce in all regulated activities.
• Public complaints and disputes against licensees and between licensees are resolve.

OGRA Head Office, Complaints

• Address: 54-B, ZTE Plaza, Fazl-ul-Haq Road, Blue Area, G-6/2, Islamabad.
• City / District : Islamabad
• You Register OGRA Complaints on the following Numbers

Composition of Authority Of OGRA

A Chairman and three members lead the authority. The Federal Government appoints the Chairman and Members through a competitive process on a tenure basis under the OGRA Ordinance. The following are the names of the Chairman and Authority Members.

Mr. Masroor Khan has been appointed Chairman of OGRA, bringing with him 30 years of local and international experience, most notably in the fields of Downstream Retail Fuel, Engineering, Project Management, Oil Asset Management, Joint Venture Governance/Management, Cross Country Oil Pipeline, Downstream Assets acquisition portfolio projects, and operational experience in the oil and gas industry, including LNG and CNG. Masroor Khan has extensive experience in the energy sector, including developing oil infrastructure and the formation of corporate alliances. He has national and international industrial experience, having worked in Pakistan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. Mr. Khan also held regional positions in Thailand, Oman, Cambodia, Laos, and Dubai.

Manager for Pakistan, Thailand, Oman, Cambodia, Laos, and Maintenance Advisor for Asia and Australia. During the early stages of his career, he was assigned to the Civil Aviation Authority from NESPAK for the Jinnah Terminal Project, New Quaid-e-Azam International Airport, Karachi.
Mr. Khan’s appointment as Chairman of OGRA is a step forward in the organization’s improvement and the equitable implementation of regulatory roles for all stakeholders in Pakistan.

 Staff

On November 21, 2019, Mr. Muhammad Arif joined the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority as a Member Gas. Mr. Arif has an MBA from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, an LLM in Petroleum Law and Policy from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Economics from Oxford in England. He is a member of the Punjab Bar Council in Pakistan. Mr. Arif belongs to the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators in the United States. He is a Certified Director and spent a year on the board of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited before joining OGRA.

As a Member Oil, Mr. Zain-ul-Abideen Qureshi joined the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on October 1, 2020. With immediate effect, Mr. Zain-ul-Abideen has resumed his duties as a Member(Oil) of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). Mr. Qureshi has extensive and diverse experience in the oil and gas industry. He is a Chemical Engineer by trade with an MSc in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He has worked in the petroleum industry in Pakistan for the past 28 years. Before his appointment as Member (Oil), he was Senior Executive Director at the OGRA. From 2015 to 2017, he was also a member of the policy and research committee of NUST’s Advanced Studies Centre, which USAID funded. Similarly, he participated in numerous national and international training courses.