Oil sales grow 5 percent in eight months

KARACHI: Pakistan’s oil sales grew by 5.0 percent to 14.8 million tons in eight months (July-February 2015-16) driven by strong growth in motor gasoline (MOGAS) and High Speed Diesel (HSD).

In February 2016, oil sales remained flat at 1.8 million tons YoY basis and were down 6.0 percent MoM.

Due to declining oil prices, white oil sales reported strong growth during the period under review. In the eight months of FY16, motor gasoline and high-speed diesel (HSD) sales were up 24 percent and 3.0 percent to 3.6 million tons and 4.8 million tons, respectively.

On the other hand, furnace oil sales (FO) sales were down 4.0 percent to 5.6 million tons due to the availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG)  to major plants, Umair Naseer at Topline Securities said.

Oil sales are anticipated to remain strong the rest of the year despite flat sales during February 2016.

Government has announced a further cut in HSD and motor gasoline prices by 6-12 percent in March 2016, which will further push white oil sales in the country.

“We anticipate oil sales to grow by 5.0 percent to 23.2 million tons in FY16 compared with 4.0 percent during the previous year,” Naseer said.

Sales of Hascol Petroleum (HASCOL) continued to post strong growth, increasing by 22 percent YoY to 0.95 million ton in the eight month period, taking its market share to 6.5 percent compared with 5.6 percent in the same period last year.

Shell also outperformed industry growing by 6.0 percent to 1.5 million tons. PSO’s oil sales grew by 3.0 percent to 8.1 million tons as company’s market share declined to 55 percent from 55.8 percent in the same period last year.