Countermeasure: Petrol and furnace oil shortage feared

OGRA to cancel licences if OMCs fail to build up fuel stocks.

ISLAMABAD:

As stocks of petrol and furnace oil decline to alarming levels, the petroleum ministry has asked the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to cancel licences of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) that fail to stock petroleum products for at least 20 days.

OMCs are currently maintaining stocks of petrol for eight days and furnace oil for four days, sources told The Express Tribune. OMCs have 60,000 tons of petrol in stock, enough to meet domestic requirements for only eight days.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the country’s largest oil marketing company, imports 35,000 tons of petrol every month to meet the consumption requirements. Local refineries produce 4,000 tons of petrol per day whereas its daily consumption is over 6,600 tons.

Attock Refinery to go offline for a month

Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), which meets 15 per cent of petrol requirements, is going to shut its plant from June 1 for maintenance purposes.

ARL Chief Executive Officer Adil Khattak, while confirming reports, said that the plant will remain offline for a month starting from next month. “We have informed the Ministry of Petroleum about this,” he said. ARL produces 28,000 tons of petrol per month.

He said that the government would arrange products from Pak-Arab Refinery Company and some through imports during the maintenance period. Pak-Arab Refinery produces 2,000 to 2,500 tons of petrol per day.

Sources informed that Byco is also not producing petrol.

Stock levels

The country’s total consumption of diesel is 21,000 tons per day while OMCs are keeping stocks of 490,000 tons, enough to meet requirements for 24 days.

The demand of furnace oil is 31,000 tons per day while OMCs are maintaining stocks of 120,000 tons that is enough for only four days. Import of 0.6 million tons of furnace oil has been planned to meet the requirements of power generation plants in June.

OMCs have been allowed to import petrol and high-speed diesel keeping in view the shortage in the country.

OMCs have also been allowed to move petrol from Parco, Keamari to Sihala region due to non-availability of the product in June, sources added.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2011.