ISLAMABAD, May 13: Pakistan plans to complete the sale of 51 per cent stake of Pakistan State Oil in the first quarter of fiscal 2003/04 (July-June), a government official said on Tuesday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that bidding for the sale of the country’s largest oil marketing firm would be held no sooner than 11 weeks from now. He said a firm date for the bidding would be announced later.

“The buyers have indicated that they would need at least eight weeks for approvals and internal formalities to fix a date for the bidding,” he added.

Pakistan has already short-listed three bidders for the PSO sale — state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Saudi Arabian group MIDROC and Pakistan’s Fauji Foundation.

The privatization of PSO, keenly monitored by the stock market, had been scheduled for April 26 but was postponed, partly due to the war in Iraq.

The government controls 51.8 per cent of PSO, which has a 70pc share of Pakistan’s petroleum market. The rest of the shares are listed, but most are in the hands of state-run institutions.

An impediment to the privatization of PSO was removed in April when the government decided to free PSO of its liability to another state agency.

The state-owned KESC owed Rs4.5bn ($77.78m) to PSO, which in turn owes an equal amount to the National Refinery Ltd (NRL).—Reuters