Petroleum sales plunge 11pc in July

KARACHI: The country witnessed a sharp decline of 11 per cent in petroleum product sales during July, marking the start of the new fiscal year on a negative note.

The sale of petroleum products also plunged by 17 per cent in July this fiscal compared to last June, according to oil sales data released on Thursday.The sale of all products came down, but a massive decrease was witnessed in the sale of furnace oil (FO) because of its falling consumption to generate power in the country.

According to the data, oil sales totalled 1.2 million tonnes in July of this financial year compared to 1.35 million tonnes in July FY25 and 1.45 million tonnes in July FY24.The sale of petrol stood at 0.59 million tons, showing a decline of 10 percent against 0.66 million tonnes in July FY24. The sale of high speed diesel totalled 0.49 million tonnes, recording a decrease of 6.0 per cent against 0.46 million tonnes sale in July FY24.

The sale of furnace oil fell sharply by 46 per cent to 0.08 million tonnes in July of the current financial year compared to 0.14 million tonnes in July FY24.The breakup of listed oil marketing companies showed that oil sales of all companies recorded decline during the month under review.

The sale of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) recorded a negative growth of 19 per cent when its sales came down to 0.55 million tonnes in July of this fiscal compared to 0.68 million tonnes in the same month of last year.The sale of Attock Petroleum Limited dropped 23 per cent to 0.10 million tonnes against 0.13 million tonnes in July of last year.The sale of Shell Pakistan recorded 8.0 per cent in July of this financial year compared to the same month of last year and the sales of Hascol was down 12 per cent in the month under review.