Pakistan State Oil profits double to Rs2.5b

PSO’s sales, revenues grew 38% to Rs279 billion during July to September 2011.

KARACHI:

Pakistan State Oil’s net profit more than doubled to Rs2.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 on the back of higher margins and lower finance cost.

Analysts also cited decrease in turnover tax to 0.5% from last year’s 1% as another boosting factor in profits.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) earlier this year decided to increase oil marketing company margins in three phases. It increased margin on petrol by 32 per cent and fixed it at Rs1.98 per litre against the previous level of Rs1.5 in August.

Dealers’ margin on diesel was increased by almost 47 per cent, or 70 paisa per litre, to Rs2.20 per litre.

The country’s largest oil marketing company’s sales revenues grew 38% to Rs279 billion during July to September 2011 compared with Rs202 billion in the same period last year, according to a notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange.

The board of directors in a meeting held on Monday expressed concern over rising receivables of the company, which stood at Rs153.5 billion as of September 30, 2011.

White oil sales grew slightly to 1.3 million tons due to increase in petrol demand caused by higher motor vehicle sales, CNG outages, increased usage of generators due to frequent power outages and a significant price gap between motor gasoline and high speed diesel.

During the period under review, PSO successfully launched its first-ever generator oil and also enhanced storage capacity through construction of a new 26,000 kilo litre storage depot near Faisalabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2011.