ISLAMABAD, June 5: Pakistan had to pay $458 million extra on petroleum imports during the first 10 months of the current fiscal because of higher international oil prices.

The Economic Survey 2002-03 showed trade balance deteriorated by $329 million due to 20.6 per cent ($457 million) rise in POL imports.

Almost one-fourth of imports are petroleum products and the rise in its imports are attributed to the higher import price of both the petroleum crude and petroleum products.

The total POL imports during the first 10 months stood at $2.683 billion as against $2.226 billion same period last year. Of this, the import of petroleum products increased to $1.47 billion from $1.222 billion last year.

The import of crude also increased by 20.6 per cent to $1.210 billion during ten months of current year against $1.004 billion same period last year.

During the first three quarters of the current fiscal, the household, agriculture, and other government sector showed declines in the use of petroleum products to the extent of 12.3 per cent, 16.8 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively.

This decline was mainly because of availability of alternative and relative cheaper fuels in the form of natural gas and LPG, and decline in demand of aviation fuels as airline industry faced decline in traffic.

However, the industry and power sectors have recorded substantial increase in the consumption of diesel, light diesel oil and fuel oil. Transport sector was the largest consumer of the petroleum products and accounted for 47.5 per cent, followed by power sector 31.5 per cent, industry 12.4 per cent, household 4.1 per cent, agriculture 1.9 per cent and others 2.6 per cent.

The sectoral of consumption of gas exhibits a mixed trend. Power sector has emerged as the largest consumer of gas with 34.5 per cent, followed by fertilizer 24.2 per cent, industrial sector 18.9 per cent, household 17.8 per cent, commercial 2.9 per cent and cement 1.7 per cent.

The consumption of gas by the power sector during the first nine months of 2002-03 increased by 14 per cent, while the industry’s consumption grew by 10.7 per cent followed by household 6.7 per cent.

During the first nine months, the overall consumption of electricity has increased due to installation of new connections, incentive package offered to the industrial consumers and accurate meter reading.

The remaining recoverable reserves of crude oil as of April 1, 2003, were estimated at 302 million barrels in the country. The average crude oil production during July-March 2002-03 was 64,907 barrels per day as against 64,361 barrels per day during the same period last year, showing an increase of 0.8 per cent.

During this period, 22.439 barrels per day (35 per cent) were produced in northern region and 42,466 (65 per cent) barrels per day in southern region as against 21,136 (33 per cent) barrels and 43,225 (67 per cent) barrels per day, respectively, during the same period last year.

As of April 1, 2003, the recoverable reserves of natural gas have been estimated at 28.3 trillion cubic feet. The average production of gas during July-March was 2,648 million cubic feet per day as against 2,526 mmcfd during the same period last year, showing an increase of almost 5 per cent.

Presently, about 1,000 tons per day LPG is being produced locally. There are 29 LPG companies, marketing the indigenous and imported LPG.

The use of CNG in automotive vehicles is being encouraged to reduce pressure on petroleum imports. More than 1,052 licences for installation of CNG stations have been issued. So far 362 stations have been established in different parts of the country.

These include 358 in private and four in the public sector. Up to March 2003, over 300,000 vehicles have been converted into CNG as compared to 240,000 vehicles last year, showing an increase of 25 per cent.

The Economic Survey disclosed that with normal demand-growth rate, Wapda will face shortages of 500 mw in the year 2005-06 and further to 5,529 mw by the year 2010.

The total installed capacity stood at 17,728 mw during July- March 2002-03, showing an increase of 0.2 per cent. In the total installed capacity, the share of Wapda system has been 54.7 per cent followed by IPPs at 32.8 per cent, KESC at 9.9 per cent and nuclear at 2.6 per cent during the year 2002-03. Within the Wapda system, the shares of thermal and hydel were 48.3 per cent and 51.7 per cent, respectively.

The number of electricity consumers has increased to 13 million by March 2003, as compared to 12.7 million in 2001-02 or by 2.4 per cent due to rapid urbanization, extension of electricity grid supply to un-electrified areas and rural electrification.