Pakistan
– Oil & Gas
Pakistan mainly depends upon
oil and gas resources to fulfill energy requirements. The domestic production
of crude oil remained 24.6 million barrels during July - March FY2019 compared
to 21.8 million barrels during the corresponding period last year. Indigenous
resources of oil are not enough to quench energy thirst of a growing economy.
As a result Pakistan has to import large quantity of oil as well as oil based
products from Middle Eastern countries especially from Saudi Arabia. During
July - March FY2019, the quantity of crude oil imported remained 6.6 million
tones with value of US $ 3.4 billion compared to the quantity 7.8 million tones
with value US $ 2.9 billion during the same period last year. The decline was
mainly due to increase in international prices. The deferred payment on
imported oil from Saudi Arabia will give an ease to the government on balance
of payments.
Transport and power are the two
major users of oil. During July - March FY2019, share of oil consumption in
transport increased to 77 from 56 percent during the same period last year,
while share of oil consumption in power decreased to 14 percent during July -
March FY2019 which was 25 percent during the same period last year. Mainly, gas
being the cheaper source, there is continuous shift of power sector from oil to
gas.
The indigenous and imported
crude is refined by six major and two small refineries.
Efforts to bring improvement in
existing refineries as well as attracting foreign investment in this sector
include but are not limited to:
- Byco Oil Pakistan Limited
(Byco) has established an Oil Refinery at Hub, Balochistan with refinery
capacity of 120,000 Barrel Per Day (5 million tons/annum) at cost of US$
400 million. Byco has also installed Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facilities
for transportation of imported Crude Oil and petroleum products from ships
to the storages tanks. The capacity of said facility is 12 M. tons per
annum.
- Attock Refinery Limited
(ARL) has started producing Euro-II (0.05 % Sulphur HSD) Further, the refinery
has also installed isomerization plant and enhanced the production of
Motor Gasoline.
- Pakistan Refinery Limited
(PRL) has also installed isomerization plant in 2016 and since then has
doubled its production of Motor Gasoline.
- Pak Arab Refinery Limited
(PARCO) is implementing PARCO Coastal Refinery project at Khalifa Point,
near Hub, Balochistan, which is a state of the art refinery having
capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (over 11 Million tons per annum).
Estimated cost of the project is over US$ 5 billion.