KARACHI: Pakistan imported record 267,763 tonnes of petrol last month, breaking the previous highest figure of 233,348 tonnes reported in November 2013.

Total imports during the first 10 months (July-April) of this fiscal year have already reached 1.85 million tonnes, and are poised to cross 1.9m tonnes during last fiscal year, according to figures released by Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC).

The import of petrol was just 127,000 in 2007-2008, rising to 249,177 tonnes in 2008-2009; 625,019 tonnes in 2009-2010; 1.06m tonnes in 2010-2011; and 1.55m tonnes in 2011-2012.

A refinery operator said some three refineries would start producing 600,000-700,000 tonnes of petrol a year by the end of 2015 thus saving foreign exchange of around $60m-70m each year based on the current prices.

He said all the refineries have invested in their isomerisation projects to boost petrol production. Refineries will convert naphtha, a basic raw material used in petrol production, into petrol. Around 700,000-800,000 tonnes of naphtha is exported every year, according to OCAC figures.

He said petrol demand continued to rise because of on and off of CNG coupled with production/sale growth in cars, bikes and three-wheelers due to heavy imports of used cars in the last few years.

As heatwave and load-shedding would persist in the next two to three months, more people would be using generators. Although most generators now run on gas, many people still use petrol.

Despite high prices of petrol, many people are purchasing 100-150cc bikes which are evident from sales of 20,176 units by Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited in July-April 2013-2014 compared to 15,562 units in same period last fiscal.

Honda’s bike sales rose to 535,078 units in the last 10 months compared to 530,241 last year. The country has been producing around 1.6m bikes annually for the last few years.

Country’s total petrol production has been around 160,000-180,000 tonnes a month in the last one and a half years, but monthly sales have already crossed 300,000 tonnes compared to 260,000 tonnes last fiscal.

Petrol sales rose by 21 per cent to 3.35m tonnes in the last fiscal year compared to 2.76m tonnes in 2011-2012. The figure was 2.3m tonnes in 2010-2011 and 1.9m tonnes in 2009-2010.

In July-February 2013-2014, sales rose by 16pc to 2.5m tonnes compared to 2.1m tonnes in the same period last fiscal. Sales will cross 3.7m tonnes in this fiscal depending on CNG load-shedding and growth in auto sales figures.

Import of power-generating machines rose slightly to $784m in July-March 2013-2014 compared to $776m in the year-ago period.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2014