#fact Fuel crisis worsens in #pakistan's richest province

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Fuel crisis worsens in Punjab
KARACHI: As Pakistan State Oil’s (PSO) fuel imports addressed the petrol shortage in Karachi, the situation in central and northern Punjab worsened with black marketers making the most of the crisis.

A spokesman at PSO said that a vessel carrying 50,000 metric tonnes of petrol would arrive on June 16 after which there would be no shortage in Karachi and PSO would increase its supplies to Punjab.

Another vessel carrying 65,000 metric tonnes of furnace oil would reach the country on Wednesday. Industry people said that PSO’s petrol import would have a very minor impact on fuel shortage in central and upper Punjab immediately because of the distance from Karachi.

The ministry of petroleum was to hold a meeting later on Tuesday to find a solution to this fuel shortage, said Secretary Petroleum, Ejaz Chodry.

People in different cities including Multan, Sargodha, Jhang and Faisalabad are facing severe difficulty in obtaining petrol for day-to-day commuting and are paying Rs125-140 per litre.

Earlier, a representative of the Petrol Dealers Association Abdul Sami Khan told the media the crisis had resulted due to stoppage of supply of fuel from an oil refinery, which was closed for annual maintenance. He said the government was informed in advance that Attock Refinery would remain closed from June 1, but it failed to make alternative arrangements.

Petrol production dropped 61 percent in the country after two of the five oil refineries stopped production because of technical and cash flow problems, industry officials said.

Pakistan’s daily consumption of petrol stands at around 6,667 tonnes per day against present supply of just 3,600 tonnes, industry sources said.

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) are bound to maintain certain quantities of petroleum products in reserve. The sudden shortage of petrol would not have happened if they had sufficient stocks. Owing to this, the Ministry of Petroleum has taken strict action against four OMCs.

Officials said that marketing companies had stopped lifting petrol from Parco, reportedly because of over charging.

Shortage of petroleum products hits the country once every few months because of limited refining capacity. Some large refinery projects have been shelved in recent years.

Deputy Managing Director Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) Aftab Hussain has said that the supply constraints would continue to haunt commuters until production capacity was increased.
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