KARACHI, Oct 23: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) recorded before-tax profit of Rs1.47 billion and after tax profit of Rs1 billion in the first quarter of 2003-2004 which is almost same recorded in the same period of last fiscal year.

The first quarter performance was reviewed by the PSO board of management (BoM) at a meeting on Thursday, which was presided over by its chairman Pervaiz Kausar.

During the period under review, the domestic POL industry experienced a huge slump of approximately 19 per cent due to the 48 per cent decline in the fuel oil consumption, which was attributed to supply of natural gas being provided to power utilities and improved hydel generation, says a press release.

White Oil gave a modest growth of 2 per cent during July- September 2003-2004, whereas the black oil dropped by 47 per cent, mainly due to the fuel oil decline. Mogas, HSD and Jet A-1 displayed a growth of nine, one and 12 per cent respectively, which was overshadowed by the massive decline of black oil.

Despite the threat posed by the new entrants and the prevailing intense competition, PSO secured its market leadership during the review period. There was a growth of 12 per cent in mogas and 10 per cent in Jet A-1. In HSD, the company sold almost one million tons, which was essentially the same volume sold in the prior year period. The company, being the major supplier of fuel oil, absorbed the major impact of reduced consumption to the tune of 610,000 tons.

During the review period, the company continued to expand its new vision network and added another 64 outlets, bringing a total to 777. CNG facility was offered at another six stations, thus, taking the total number of outlets with CNG facility to 79.