570,000 tonnes of petrol likely to be imported in July

KARACHI: Country is likely to import 570,000 tonnes of petrol and 280,000 tonnes of High Speed Diesel (HSD) in July 2022 to meet domestic demand, which seems to have dropped a bit after the last price hike, The News learnt on Saturday.

The government and oil sector of the country worked out the demand and supply of the petroleum products for the month of July in a recent meeting.

Sources said after reviewing the sales pattern for June 2022, the industry noticed an ease in the demand for both fuels after the government completely reversed the subsidy on petroleum products on June 15, 2022

The current sales dropped to 16,500 to 17,000 tonnes per day from 24,000 tonnes per day average of 1-15 June, 2022.

However, the oil industry expects an increase in sales during the last few days of June due to price increase anticipation on July 01, 2022.

In July, the sales of petroleum products are likely to ease as an increase in prices might dent the sales amid shrinking buying powers of the poor consumers.

According to the sources, after taking into account the production of local refineries, it was decided to import the deficit of both products.

The country is estimated be importing around 280,000 tonnes of HSD and 570,000 tonnes of petrol in the coming month.

The prices of petrol and HSD peaked to the highest level in the country’s history on the back of rising prices of crude oil as well as the depreciation of rupee against dollar, which made the petroleum products costlier for the domestic consumers.

Petrol is currently available at Rs233.89 per litre after the government increased its price by Rs.24.03 in last fortnightly review on June 15, 2022 by withdrawing the subsidy on it on the demand of International Monetary Fund.

The price of diesel jumped to Rs263.31/litre after an increase of Rs59.16 per litre in the last fortnightly review after the abolition of the huge subsidy of Rs59.16 under the condition of IMF to qualify for the Extended Fund Facility (EFF)’s next tranche.

Country relies on imported petroleum products due to limited capacity of refineries to produce petroleum products from imported and locally produced crude oil.

The indigenous crude oil output fell to average 73,668 barrels per day in July-May of current fiscal year compared to the average 75,548 barrels per day the country produced in the same months of the last year.

The production of oil reduced to 24.31 million tonnes in the first eleven months of the current fiscal compared to 24.93 million tonnes in the corresponding months of last fiscal year.