Petroleum sales fall 7pc in Decemberon higher prices, lower demand

KARACHI: The sale of petroleum products dropped 7 percent year-on-year to 1.24 million tonnes in December, as higher prices, economic slowdown and lower demand for furnace oil weighed on the oil industry, a report by Arif Habib Limited said on Tuesday.

The sales of motor spirit (MS), or petrol, fell 8 percent to 0.57 million tonnes, while high speed diesel (HSD) sales declined 2 percent to 0.51 million tonnes in December, the report said, citing data from the oil industry.

Furnace oil (FO) sales, which are mainly used by power plants, plunged 36 percent to 0.08 million tonnes, as the country shifted to new coal-based power plants to reduce its reliance on the expensive fuel.

On a month-on-month basis, petroleum sales reported a fall of 10 percent in December 2023. The sales of MS remained unchanged at 0.57 million tonnes. However, HSD sale plummeted by 21 percent month-on-month due to the end of the peak demand in November 2023 for Rabi season, when farmers use diesel to run irrigation pumps. Likewise, offtake of FO declined by 4 percent month-on-month in December.

Petroleum product sales fell 15 percent year-on-year to 7.68 million tonnes in the first half of the current fiscal year.

Product-wise data showed a reduction in all categories as the volumetric sales of MS, HSD, and FO clocked in at 3.57 million tonnes, 3.16 million tonnes, and 0.56 million tonnes, respectively.

Company-wise analysis depicts that sales of PSO reduced by 5 percent year-on-year in December , which is on account of fall in sales of MS, HSD, and FO by 4 percent, 8 percent, and 11 percent, respectively.

Shell Pakistan witnessed year-on-year drop of 18 percent, while Attock Petroleum Limited (APL) and HASCOL showcased year-on-year 6 percent jump in sales, each.

During July-December of the current fiscal year, petroleum sales of PSO, Shell, and APL declined by 17 percent, 19 percent, and 6 percent year-on-year, respectively. HASCOL’s offtake witnessed a growth of 27 percent year-on-year in the first half of the current fiscal year.

During the first six months of the current fiscal, PSO’s market share dropped by 1.3 percent to 50.1 percent against 51.4 percent in the same quarter of last fiscal year. Whereas, the market share of Shell dropped by 0.4 percent to 7.1 percent year-on-year in the period under review.

Moreover, the market share of APL and HASCOL in first half of the current fiscal increased to 10.1 percent against 9.2 percent in the same period of the last year and 2.6 percent against 1.8 percent in the same months of last fiscal, respectively. Meanwhile, the market share of other OMCs remained stable at 30.01 percent in the first half of the current fiscal.