Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The government has fixed the target of producing 31.12 Million Barrel (MBL) oil, 1.58 Trillion Cubic Feet Gas (TCF) gas during the fiscal year 2020-21 aimed at meeting the maximum domestic fuel requirements through indigenous means and bringing down the country’s oil import bill.
“The gap between indigenous gas and petroleum production and demand will be supplemented through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and petroleum products’ imports,” according to the Annual Development Plan devised for the upcoming fiscal year.
The country’s total consumption of petroleum products stood at 19.68 Million Tons (MTs) during the year 2019-20, out of which 11.59 MTs was achieved through local refineries and 8.09 MT through import.
Whereas, there was a gap of over 2 Billion Cubic Feet per Day) gas between production and demand of the commodity to meet requirements of more than 9.6 million consumers across the country, the government said in the Economic Survey 2019-20.
Currently, as many as five refineries are operating in the country with overall installed capacity of 417,400 barrel per day (BPD) oil and contributing significantly in meeting the petroleum needs through indigenous production.
Out of which, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) has 100,000 BPD oil refining capacity, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) 53,400 BPD, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (Byco) 150,000 BPD, National Refinery Limited (NRL) 64,000 BPD and Pakistan Refinery Limited 50,000 BPD, according the Economic Survey 2019-20.
During the period under review, the petrol consumption in the country stood at 7.6 MTs per annum, out of which 30 percent was being catered from local refineries and rest was being imported to meet the national demand.
Similarly, the consumption of diesel was around 7.3 MTs/annum. The local production could meet 65 percent of the total demand, while rest was being imported.
At present, thirty Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) including Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSOCL), Shell Pakistan Limited (SPL), Total Parco Pakistan Limited (TPPL), Attock Petroleum Limited (APL), Gas & Oil Pakistan Private Limited (GOPPL) and Hascol Storage Limited (HPL) are operating in the country.
Among these OMCs, PSO leads with an overall market share of 42.5 percent, followed by APL with 10.9 percent, TPPL 10.3 percent, HPL 9.8 percent and SPL 8.3 percent. OMCs receive, store and distribute the petroleum products in the country by utilizing their supply arrangements and infrastructure, comprising of their installations, storage depots, oil pipelines and retail outlets.
The bulk of 19.68 million tonnes of petroleum products required by the Pakistan’s market is transported by road (around 74 percent), Oil pipelines (24.4 percent) and Railways (1.5 percent).
During the current year, the country’s indigenous natural gas production remained at around 4 BCFD against an unconstrained demand of over 6 BCFD.
The ever-increasing demand of the commodity is being met through import LNG and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
To achieve self-sufficiency in the energy sector, the government had devised an effective strategy accelerate oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas of the country to identify new hydrocarbon deposits.
