The government is planning to import 500,000 tonnes of petrol and around 250,000 tonnes of diesel next month to fulfill the country’s demand.

Estimates show that the demand for petrol in Pakistan will be 712,500 tonnes in February 2022, with the demand for diesel at 647,500 tonnes along with furnace oil (FO) at 161,000 tonnes, according to a report by a National Daily.

To meet its oil demand, Pakistan imports 80 percent of the total oil as the local production is not sufficient to meet the demand.

Domestic prices are currently at their highest level in history due to an increase in global oil prices. The devaluation of the Pakistani Rupee against the US Dollar has put a further burden on the consumers.

The country will import diesel to meet the insufficient production by domestic refineries, however, FO will not be imported due to almost zero demand from independent power producers, its major consumers.

The demand for oil products is continuously rising with oil sales increasing by 19.5 percent from 17.41 million tonnes in 2020 to 21 million tonnes in 2021.

Following a similar trend, petrol sales grew by 13.4 percent, increasing to the highest ever in 2021 with 8.64 million tonnes compared to 7.62 million tonnes in 2020. Similarly, during the first half of the fiscal year 2022, the consumption of petroleum products increased by 14 percent and was recorded at 11 million tonnes, despite a 7 percent drop in December 2021 sales.

During the first half-year of FY22, petrol sales grew by 10 percent to 4.5 million tonnes, furnace oil offtake grew by 17 percent to 1.9 million tonnes whereas high-speed diesel sales grew by 16 percent to 4.3 million tonnes.

Source: Pro Pakistani