Petroleum products register sales surge of 8%

Increased demand comes due to growing automobiles and higher CNG prices

KARACHI: Sales of petroleum products surged 8% to 2.05 million tons in January with increased demand coming from growing automobiles and increased CNG prices.

Topline Securities analyst Umair Naseer said that the oil marketing companies' sales remained slightly lower than estimates during January. However, motor gasoline (MOGAS) and high speed diesel (HSD) sales continued to remain strong during the month.

"Sales of MOGAS and HSD, which are high margin products, were led by low pump prices, rising auto sales and increased transportation activity," said Naseer.



"De-regulation of the CNG sector and recent increase in its prices have also led to increased demand of MOGAS during the month, we believe," he said.

Furnace oil sales were down 2% on year-on-year basis in the month due to low demand from the power sector, he added. Hascol Petroleum remained the star performer, as it posted highest growth of 23% in the sector. With this, its market share rose to 10% in January as compared with 8% in the same month in 2016.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) posted growth of 11% mainly led by MOGAS sales.

In the first seven months (July 2016 to January 2017) of current fiscal year, the aggregate sales of petroleum products stood at 15.17 million tons - showing a year-on-year growth of 17%.

The growth was led by volumetric sales of furnace oil, followed by HSD and MOGAS, respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2017.

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