Blockade of smuggled Iranian oil in Balochistan?
Just two years ago, when petrol was selling at around Rs 110 per liter across Pakistan, Haji Rahim Dad's price was only Rs 80 per liter.
He owns a mini petrol pump in Mastung District, Balochistan Province, Pakistan, six hundred and fifty kilometers from the Iranian border.
He says this was a time when there were not many restrictions on Iranian oil smuggled by Pakistani authorities. "Iranian petrol and diesel were being sold at Rs 80 per liter in Mastung. But now they are being sold at Rs 114 to Rs 118.
In Mastung, just 50km from the provincial capital Quetta, many, like Haji Rahim Dad, have been involved in the same business for decades.
Nazar Mohammad, 24, could not complete his education due to lack of resources. Despite desperate efforts for a government job, when frustrated, he began selling Iranian oil in the city of Mastung to support his family, but for the past six months, the business has been badly affected.
Speaking on the phone, he said that now the border has become more difficult. "The flow of oil has either stopped or even if it does, it will not happen."

Nabi Bakhsh's livelihood depends on Iranian oil. He even bought his own car to bring Iranian oil
The decline in oil imports from Iran is affecting not only Nazar Mohammad but also millions of people in Balochistan whose direct or indirect business is linked to Iranian oil.
Where people's livelihoods have been affected, there is a growing fear of an oil crisis in more than half of Balochistan, as there has been no supply of oil by Pakistani oil companies in those areas for the past two and a half decades.
Like the general public, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan also expressed concern over the situation, saying that without alternatives, problems would arise for the government machinery itself.
'Unemployment will rise in Balochistan if Iranian oil shuts down'
Nazar Muhammad is the eldest of the other siblings. When he couldn't find a good job, he set up an Iranian oil shop with his father's savings. For the past three years, he has been making a living from this business, but now he has no future.
"For the past five or six months, the supply of both Iranian petrol and diesel has been almost non-existent," he said.
Like Nazar Mohammad, 40-year-old Nabi Bakhsh, from Mastung, also depends on Iranian oil for his livelihood.
He is a driver by profession and until three or four years ago he was driving someone else's truck. When it became difficult to stay away from home due to domestic problems, he bought his own car to bring Iranian oil.
He told the over the phone that he used to support his family by bringing oil from Nokandi in the Chaghi district of Balochistan, which borders Iran, and occasionally from Washik district.
Industries are almost non-existent in Balochistan, while climate change has also affected people's natural livelihoods.
When the Balochistan government cracked down on Iranian oil smuggling last year, Mastung staged a long march to Quetta, led by Shahnawaz Baloch, chairman of the Balochistan Unemployed Association.
However, as a result of negotiations, the long march ended on the way.
There are some areas in Balochistan where '100 percent dependence is on Iranian oil because there is no pump except for one or two stations of Pakistan State Oil'.
Speaking to the, Shahnawaz said that in Mastung district alone, there are more than 25,000 vehicles registered with his organization that bring Mastung oil from the border areas.
He said that after Mastung, the oil used to go from Quetta to Zhob and from Mastung to Kalat, Sorab, Khuzdar and Lasbela in the south.
He said that according to a conservative estimate, the closure of Mastung and the areas where Iranian oil used to flow from here had affected the livelihoods of 1.5 to 200,000 people in those areas.
He said that if Iranian oil was stopped, the problem of unemployment in Balochistan would become more serious. Balochistan shares borders with Iran in five districts, including Chaghi, Washik, Panjgur, Ketch and Gwadar.
Anis Ahmed Baloch, an oil trader in Panjgur, said the area was "100 per cent dependent on Iranian oil for fuel because there are no pumps in Gwadar or Ketch except for one or two stations of Pakistan State Oil."
He said that there has been no facility of supplying oil by Pakistani companies in these areas for the last two and a half decades and not for the last few years.
"We had two PSO pumps in Nag area of Panjgur and Washik but they have not been supplied with oil by the company in 15, 20 years."
Anis Ahmed said that not only do the people in these border districts depend on Iran for oil, but also a lot of foodstuffs come from there.
"No factories have been set up in these areas and there are no other sources of livelihood and employment," he said. Therefore, the employment and livelihood of the people also depend on Iranian goods, especially Iranian oil.
He said that the closure of most of the border routes by the Pakistani authorities and the introduction of token system from one or two routes has also created an oil crisis in the border areas.
Anis Ahmed said that the closure of Iranian oil has not only affected the employment of people in these districts but also people in the entire three divisions of Balochistan like Rakhshan, Makran and Kalat are facing difficulties in getting oil.
"Panjgur is with Iran but due to sanctions, the price of Iranian oil has gone up to over Rs 150 due to shortage in Panjgur before Eid," he said. It has never cost more than Rs 70-75 per liter before.
The shortage of oil in Quetta city for a few days before Eid was also attributed by some pump owners to the shortage of oil from Nata Iran as the shortage of Iranian oil in Quetta city has made Pakistani companies dependent on petrol. It was done at the pumps.
Will people in Balochistan be able to live without Iranian oil?
When contacted by a senior customs official about the plight of the people as a result of measures to curb Iranian oil, he declined to speak formally, saying only a spokesman for the Board of Revenue had formally told the media. Authorized to speak

The Balochistan chief minister said that if there was no Iranian oil in some areas, the police would stop patrolling there "because their vehicles would not run on water".
He said there was now a consensus at all levels to stop the smuggling of Iranian oil and that one of the other reasons for building a fence with Afghanistan and Iran was to stop the smuggling. He said that Iranian oil is still being softened in Balochistan but it has been tightened outside Balochistan.
He said more than 200 petrol pumps had been sealed in other provinces along the Balochistan border selling smuggled Iranian oil from Balochistan.
He said that smuggling of Iranian oil and other goods would be stopped in Balochistan in future also.
The question now is whether it would be possible for people to live in Balochistan without Iranian oil. When this question was asked to Sana Baloch, a member of the Balochistan Assembly and leader of the Balochistan National Party, she replied, "It is not possible."
Sana Baloch hails from Kharan, which is connected to Washik, a border district of Iran in the Rakhshan division. Sana Baloch said that people's travel in Balochistan is not only dependent on Iranian oil but also agriculture, mining, fishing and other sectors of business in Balochistan are dependent on Iranian oil.
"60% of Balochistan's population travels and 70% of the population's business depends on Iranian oil."
He said that the business of the people of Balochistan living below the poverty line could not run on the price at which Pakistani companies were supplying oil. He said that if a mistake was made to cut off Iranian oil, it would lead to more poverty and unrest.
The measures to cut off Iranian oil have caused concern not only in Balochistan but also at the government level in Balochistan itself.
Balochistan are worried after the ban on Iranian oil smuggling because of the unavailability of alternatives.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan was on a recent visit to Hub, adjacent to Karachi, when media representatives asked him a question about Iranian oil. He replied, "It is a good announcement that oil has been cut off, but there is not a single petrol pump of domestic companies in Rakhshan, Makran and half of Kalat divisions out of the three divisions of Balochistan."
He said that the Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, I, you, truck and bus will bring oil from where the oil will be shut off without any alternative.
'Bring an alternative first. Let me say that now domestic companies have installed 200 petrol pumps in these three divisions. Therefore, the people of Balochistan will no longer have a fuel problem. Please reduce this.
"Nothing is happening for the alternative, but the emphasis is on shutting down Iranian oil," he said. Talks are underway with our federal government on this. I have asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy. Through the media, I will again ask Caltex, PSO and Shell to go to these three divisions and provide facilities.
He said that if there was no Iranian oil in these areas, the police SP would stop patrolling because "their vehicle will not run on water."
Oil marketing companies operating in Pakistan have a much smaller number of filling stations in Balochistan than in other parts of the country.
He questioned how the fishing boats, the diesel engines of the farmers would run if it was not oil.
The Chief Minister said that some things are right and some are wrong. But manage the alternatives then you slowly move towards closure.
How will the oil needs of Balochistan be met now?
The smuggled oil products from Iran to Balochistan were meeting the oil needs of the province's industry, agriculture, fisheries and other sectors. However, meeting oil needs in Balochistan is now in crisis.
Compared to other provinces of Pakistan, the formal presence of the country's oil sector in Balochistan has been very low and now it is becoming more and more difficult to meet the demand for oil in remote districts of Balochistan.
Arriving in Karachi from Kalat, Zulfiqar Baloch told the BBC that long queues were seen at a pump in Kalat where Pakistani oil was available and it took him a long time to fill his car's fuel tank.
According to him, after Kalat, the same scene was seen at a petrol pump running on Pakistani oil in Khuzdar when people were waiting in long queues for diesel and petrol.
Oil marketing companies operating in Pakistan have a much smaller number of filling stations in Balochistan than in other parts of the country.
Except for a few of the more than three dozen oil marketing companies operating in Pakistan, the presence of other companies in Balochistan is almost non-existent and the few companies whose filling stations are operating are much smaller than in other provinces. This presence is far less than the proportion of the population.
If PSO, the largest oil marketing company in the oil sector, is a government agency, it has 3,500 petrol pumps across the country, of which only 198 are in Balochistan. There are only three PSO depots in the province.
The number of petrol pumps of a few large oil marketing companies operating in the private sector is also very low in Balochistan. This is not the case in the three divisions most affected by the Iranian oil embargo, Kalat, Makran and Rakhshan.
When asked about the oil needs in Balochistan, the government-run PSO said in a written reply to BBC Urdu that the PSO's oil needs at retail petrol pumps in Balochistan are in Karachi. , Khuzdar, Shikarpur and Quetta.
According to the agency, the PSO has the capability to easily meet the oil needs in Balochistan after the blockade of oil smuggled from Iran.
When the PSO was asked if it had the oil supply infrastructure to meet the oil needs of Balochistan, the agency replied that it was capable of meeting the oil needs of the province and They are working to further improve their storage and distribution system in Balochistan.
Why private oil companies in Pakistan have not set up infrastructure in Balochistan?
Talking about the lack of infrastructure for oil marketing companies in Balochistan, Ilyas Fazil, former chief executive of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) and current head of the Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan, said that petrol and diesel from Iran Smuggling continues to be a problem for the sector.
He told that five oil depots of oil marketing companies and about 300 petrol pumps in Balochistan were not only at risk due to smuggled Iranian oil, but also the law and order situation in the province. Increased risks.
He said the issue had been raised in the past in many forums on how to stop the smuggling of Iranian oil and allow the formal sector to operate there. But the water turned.
Elias Fazil said estimates were set to set up 200 new petrol pumps in Balochistan in 2014, but that the investment was possible only if Iranian oil smuggling was stopped in Balochistan and the law and order situation improved. ۔
He said that even if the supply of oil smuggled from Iran to Balochistan was stopped, security threats still existed and the supply of oil by oil marketing companies could be jeopardized.
He said that if law enforcement agencies provide security cover to ensure supply to oil depots and petrol pumps from there, then oil supply could be increased.
Talking about the low presence of oil marketing companies in Balochistan, Ilyas Fazil said that considering the smuggled Iranian oil and the security situation in the province, the companies could not be blamed for the lack of oil supply infrastructure in Balochistan. Not established
Concluding his remarks, he said that the supply of Pakistani oil in Balochistan was conditional on two things. That is, the smuggling of Iranian oil should be stopped completely and the second supply should be fully protected.
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