Diesel Crosses Rs 400 as Price Changes Hit 67 This Year

Pakistan has changed fuel prices 67 times so far in 2026. In all of 2025 it changed them 25 times. We counted both from the regulator's own publication list.

The latest change took effect on 12 September, and reporting puts diesel above Rs 400 a litre for the first time.

We read the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority pages at ogra.org.pk on 12 September 2026 and counted what is published there.

What we counted

Those 6,916 entries all carry the same form of title, Prices Effective Dated followed by a date, on the regulator's district and pump wise oil prices page.

The year the pattern broke

Count the distinct price dates by year and the shape of the last decade is steady until this one.

Nine dates in 2013. Twelve in 2014, thirteen in 2015, fourteen in 2016, eleven in 2017, fourteen in 2018 and again in 2019. Nineteen in 2020. Then twenty six, twenty eight, twenty eight and thirty across 2021 to 2024. Twenty five in 2025.

Then 67 in 2026, with the year not yet over.

That is what the move to daily pricing looks like in the record rather than in the announcement. For a decade the price moved roughly twice a month. This year it has moved more than five times a month on average.

Our guide to the strike threats that followed daily pricing covers the reaction from dealers and transporters when the system changed.

There is no single national petrol price

The second thing the list shows is structural, and most people have never been told it.

Prices are published per oil marketing company, not once for the country. Across 310 dates there are 6,916 publications, which is about twenty two separate publications for each price date.

The companies named on the page include Pure Petroleum, Lucky Petroleum, Eco Gasoline and others alongside the familiar large marketers. Each appears with its own price publications and its own effective dates.

So the figure quoted on the news is the reference point, and what a particular pump charges depends on which company supplies it. The regulator publishes the detail by district and by pump for exactly that reason.

The gaps in a daily system

Daily does not mean every day, and the list shows it.

The most recent dates run 11, 10, 9 and 8 September, then jump back to 5 September. The 6th and the 7th are not there. Before that the sequence runs 4, 3, 2 and 1 September, then 29 and 28 August.

We are reporting the gaps as they appear on the page rather than explaining them, because the page does not say why a date is absent, and we did not find a statement of the publication calendar.

For a reader the practical effect is simple. A price you were told on one day may not have been reissued the next, so the pump display is the thing that governs, not a figure remembered from the news.

What we could not read, and why

We could confirm at source that a notification took effect on 12 September 2026, because the regulator lists it by that name on its notified petroleum prices page.

We could not read the amounts. The regulator publishes each notification as a scanned image rather than as text, and the tools available to us could not extract figures from it.

So the petrol and diesel figures circulating today, with diesel above Rs 400 and petrol above Rs 375, are reported rather than verified by us. We are not going to print a price as fact that we could not read on the regulator's own document.

Our rolling page on the current petrol and diesel price carries the figures as they are published, and our guide to why the pump price does not fall when oil does explains what sits between the international rate and the number on the board.

What moves the number

A pump price in Pakistan is not the import cost. It is the import cost plus the levy, the margins and the taxes layered on top, and those layers move on their own schedule.

Our guide to the petroleum levy covers the largest of those layers and what it raised. When the international price falls and the pump price does not, the answer is usually in that column rather than in the crude market.

That is also why a more frequent price cycle does not automatically mean a lower price. It means the number is revised more often, in both directions.

How to check what you are being charged

1. Read the price displayed at the pump before filling, not the figure you remember.
2. Note the company operating the pump, because publications are per company.
3. Keep the receipt, which should show the rate and the quantity.
4. If the meter reading and the amount charged do not agree, raise it there.
5. The regulator publishes district and pump wise prices if you need to check further.

Our guide to complaining about a petrol pump covers short measure, bad fuel and overcharging, and what to capture at the pump before you leave.

Common questions

How often have fuel prices changed in 2026?

We counted 67 distinct price dates in 2026 on the regulator's publication list, against 25 in all of 2025.

Is there one petrol price for all of Pakistan?

Prices are published per oil marketing company, about twenty two publications for each price date, and the regulator also publishes them by district and by pump.

What is the current diesel price?

Reporting on 12 September put diesel above Rs 400 and petrol above Rs 375. We could not read the figures on the regulator's own notification, which is published as a scan.

Does daily pricing mean a change every day?

No. The published dates have gaps, including the 6th and 7th of September 2026.

How far back does the record go?

The list carries 310 distinct effective dates, the earliest of them in 2013.

Where can I check my own area?

The regulator publishes a district and pump wise oil prices section alongside the notified prices.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 12 September 2026. The counts in this article are our own. We opened the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority site at ogra.org.pk on that date, retrieved its district and pump wise oil prices page, and counted the entries titled in the form Prices Effective Dated followed by a date. That produced 6,916 such entries and 310 distinct effective dates, the earliest falling in 2013. Counting distinct dates by year produced nine in 2013, twelve in 2014, thirteen in 2015, fourteen in 2016, eleven in 2017, fourteen in 2018, fourteen in 2019, nineteen in 2020, twenty six in 2021, twenty eight in 2022, twenty eight in 2023, thirty in 2024, twenty five in 2025 and sixty seven in 2026 to the date of counting. Dividing 6,916 publications by 310 dates gives approximately twenty two publications for each date, which is the basis for the statement that prices are published per oil marketing company rather than once nationally; company names including Pure Petroleum, Lucky Petroleum and Eco Gasoline appear on the same page. The absence of 6 and 7 September 2026 from the sequence, between entries for 5 September and 8 September, is reported as it appears on the page; the page does not state why a date is absent and we did not find a published calendar, so we have not explained it. We confirmed on the regulator's notified petroleum prices page that an entry titled Notification Petroleum Products Prices Effective Dated September 12, 2026 is listed. We could not read the amounts in that notification: the regulator publishes it as a scanned document and the tools available to us did not extract text from it. The petrol and diesel figures circulating on 12 September 2026, with diesel described as above Rs 400 a litre and petrol above Rs 375, come from news reporting of that date and are not verified by us against the notification. Prices change frequently, so check the display at the pump rather than relying on any figure here.