OMC sales see 18-year low in FY24

KARACHI: The sale of petroleum products dropped to an 18-year low level in the financial year ended on June 30, 2024, official data shows.

The sale of petroleum products declined by 8.0 per cent YoY to 15.28 million tonnes during FY24, which has been attributed to the economic slowdown and the smuggling of petroleum products, which hit the sale of these products from the legal sector.

According to oil sales data, during the month of June 2024, the OMC industry’s sales increased by 8.0 per cent YoY and 4.0 per cent MoM to 1.45 million tonnes respectively.Total sales during FY24 settled at 16.61 million tonnes, declining by 8.0 per cent YoY, registering the lowest ever sales since FY06.

Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited (AAHL), attributed the decrease in sales to various factors. He listed the economic slowdown as the biggest factor, which brought down the sales of petroleum products. According to him, inflation also adversely impacted the purchasing power of consumers, especially after the prices of petroleum products skyrocketed in the local market.

Tahir added that the smuggling of petroleum products severely dented the sales of oil marketing companies, which struggled hard against the smuggled products throughout the financial year.

The analyst also attributed the decrease in the overall sale to low consumption of furnace oil after power plants did not consume the commodity in huge quantities for electricity generation.

The data showed that the sale of petrol dipped by 4.0 per cent during the fiscal under review. In June last year, the sale of petrol, however, had surged by 9.0 per cent.During the financial year under review, the sale of high speed diesel (HSD) decreased by 2.0 per cent, whereas it recorded a growth of 5.0 percent last June compared to the same month of the previous year. During FY24, the sale of furnace oil plunged by 49 per cent. However, in the month of June, its sales saw six percent growth.

The sales of leading OMCs showed that the sale of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) dropped by 9.0 per cent during the full fiscal and remained flat in the month of June compared to the same period a year ago.

The sales of Attock Petroleum recorded a 5.0 per cent decline in the full fiscal and 15 per cent in the month of June. The sales of Shell dropped by 11 per cent in FY24 and up by 12 per cent in the month of June. The sales of Hascol decreased by 8.0 per cent in FY24 and 37 per cent in June as compared to the last fiscal.