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| May 15, 2006 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1427 |
Next year’s petrol imports likely to cost $7bn
ISLAMABAD, May 14: The cost of next year’s petroleum imports are expected to be close to $7 billion, about $1.2 billion higher than current year’s revised estimates of $6.6 billion.
Final budget estimates, it is learnt, suggest that on the basis of expected $56 per barrel price in the Arabian-Gulf, the foreign exchange allocation for the next year’s oil imports has been put at $6.8 billion. In 2004-05, the oil import bill had stood at $4.778 billion.
The total consumption of crude for the next year has been estimated at 73.3 million tons, high-speed diesel at four million tons and furnace oil at 650,000 tons. It meant that crude consumption would increase by over 14 per cent over the current year’s revised estimates of 64 million tons.
However, the diesel and furnace oil consumption would fall by 8.7 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively, when compared with current year’s actual consumption. The cumulative cost of diesel and fuel oil has been projected at $2.235 billion for the next year against $2.7 billion during the current year, down by 16 per cent.
The cost of Arabian light crude import has been estimated at $2.296 billion next year, compared with $1.868 billion of the current year, showing an increase of 23 per cent as a result of an equal (23 per cent) increase in its consumption.
The import cost of Iranian light, upper zakum, Qatar marine and Murban for the next year has been estimated at $168 million, $420 million, $448 million and $773 million, respectively.
For the current year, an amount of $6.4 billion had been estimated for the import of about 64.75 million tons of crude, 4.6 million tons of diesel and 1.8 million tons of furnace oil.
The actual consumption, however, has been estimated to be on the lower side but its import cost has been estimated to be higher than the budgeted target.
The government had originally estimated diesel import at 4.6 million tons for the current year in the budget 2005-06 and its price was put at $1.725 billion. However, the actual consumption has been estimated to drop to 4.38 million tons, but its cost has gone up to $2.223 billion. Next year, the consumption is estimated at four million tons and its cost at $2.03 billion.
The fuel oil import was originally estimated for the current year at 1.8 million tons and its cost at $358 million but the consumption has been revised downward to 1.38 million tons and its cost at $440 million. For the next year, the furnace oil import has been estimated at 650,000 tons and its cost would stand at $207 million.
Furthermore, the total crude oil consumption for the current year was estimated at 64.750 million tons and its cost at $2.9 billion. However, the actual consumption estimates have been reduced to 64.2 million but its cost has gone up to $3.6 billion.
For next year, the crude oil consumption has been estimated to increase to 73.3m tons and its cost would be around $4.1bn.
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