A threatened nationwide shutdown of Pakistan’s fuel supply chain was averted — for now — after Federal Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik reached out to the Pakistan Oil Tankers and Contractors Association and invited its leadership for talks on Monday, July 27, the association announced.

The outreach came in response to a 72-hour ultimatum issued by the tanker owners, who have been locked in negotiations with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the Petroleum Division for the past year and a half with no resolution.

Association President Abidullah Afridi said the outcome of Monday’s meeting would determine whether the planned protest is called off or escalated. “We will announce our decision after the meeting based on the government’s response to our demands,” he said.

The association is pressing for three key concessions: an increase in the White Oil Pipeline quota, an immediate halt to commercial loading practices, and a long-overdue revision of oil tanker freight rates, which it says have remained frozen for three years despite a roughly 180 percent surge in Motorway and National Highway Authority (NHA) toll taxes.

Afridi argued that freight charges must be revised to reflect the steep rise in operating costs, warning that failure to reach an agreement would leave the association with no choice but to announce a nationwide wheel-jam strike — a move that could paralyze the transportation of petroleum products across the country.

The association maintained that it had exhausted all avenues of dialogue before resorting to the strike warning, pointing to prolonged correspondence with regulators that yielded no tangible progress. Monday’s talks now stand as the decisive moment in a standoff that has placed Pakistan’s fuel logistics on a knife’s edge.