Despite floods, sales of petroleum products increase

OMCs sell 1.4m tons in Sept 2025, higher by 8% YoY and 5% MoM

ISLAMABAD:

Despite several challenges, including the recent floods, sales of petroleum products went up during September 2025.

Sales of oil refineries surpassed production during the month while sales of oil marketing companies (OMCs) rose 8% year-on-year (YoY) and 5% month-on-month (MoM). Oil industry officials reveal that high-speed diesel (HSD) has been oversupplied due to imports, which poses a challenge to refineries. Oil refineries have observed fluctuations in the currency exchange rate. Exchange rates quoted by banks are higher than the State Bank's rate, triggering more challenges for the industry. Changing weather conditions are also putting a strain on the industry.

OMCs recorded sales of 1.4 million tons in September 2025, higher by 8% YoY and 5% MoM. The YoY growth was fuelled by gradual economic recovery and reduced smuggling from Iran while the MoM increase was driven by a lower base as sales in August were below potential in the face of floods and monsoon rains across the country.

This took total sales for the first quarter of FY26 to 3.9 million tons, reflecting a 6% increase compared to 3.7 million tons in 1QFY25. Motor spirit (MS or petrol) prices remained stable at Rs264.61 per litre, while HSD prices fell 3% from an average of Rs279.41/litre to Rs271.38/litre.

Petrol sales registered an 8% YoY and a 1% MoM increase to 683k tons in September. Similarly, HSD sales rose 20% YoY and 13% MoM to 592k tons. Furnace oil (FO) sales fell 81% YoY and 29% MoM to 13k tons. Cnergyico PK, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pearl Parco were the main sellers of FO. Among listed entities, Attock Petroleum Limited's (APL) sales stood at 116k tons in September 2025, up 2% YoY and 3% MoM on the back of higher HSD offtake. APL has a market share of 8.15% in MS and 8.94% in HSD, down 39 basis points (bps) and up 14 bps, respectively.

PSO sales edged higher by 4% YoY and MoM to 570k tons in September. Its market share in MS and HSD came in at 38.35% and 41.66%, down 62 bps and 63 bps MoM, respectively. PSO's overall market share shrank from 42.07% in August 2025 to 41.57% in September 2025, down 50 bps. Wafi Energy recorded sales of 117k tons in September, up 25% YoY and 9% MoM, while Hascol sales reached 43k tons, up 2% YoY and 3% MoM.

"We expect oil sales in FY26 to grow in the range of 7-10%," Topline Securities said. "The government has set a petroleum development levy (PDL) collection target of Rs1.47 trillion for FY26, of which, we believe, Rs357 billion (24%) has been collected in 1QFY25."

Refineries' sales beat production

Sales of petrol and HSD by oil refineries surpassed production during September 2025. According to sources, total production of petrol stood at 197,481 metric tons while sales reached 205,956 tons. Similarly, HSD production came in at 431,961 metric tons against sales of 476,926 tons.

The highest MS output came from Pak-Arab Refinery Company (Parco) – the country's largest refinery – at 105,923 tons compared to sales of 120,254 tons. Parco – a joint venture between Pakistan and the UAE – is the largest user of crude oil being imported from Saudi Arabia on deferred payments. Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) followed Parco, where production stood at 43,500 tons against sales of 39,369 tons. ARL mainly uses locally produced crude oil.

National Refinery Limited (NRL) produced 18,724 tons of petrol whereas sales were recorded at 21,183 tons. Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) produced 18,430 tons of petrol and sold 15,357 tons. Cnergyico PK, the country's largest private sector refinery, produced 10,904 tons of petrol against sales of 9,793 tons. Parco also took the lead in HSD production, which stood at 219,090 tons against sales of 250,122 tons during the period under review. NRL reported output of 69,599 tons vs sales of 82,723 tons while PRL produced 64,776 tons of diesel and sold 60,170 tons.

ARL's diesel production stood at 47,631 tons against sales of 49,805 tons and Cnergyico produced 30,865 tons, whereas sales reached 34,106 tons.