SINGAPORE: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is skipping January imports of high sulphur fuel oil for the first time and is reducing its overall imports in February to March by about 80 per cent from a year earlier, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

State-owned PSO will import 120,000 tonnes of low sulphur fuel oil in February through March, compared with a total of 715,000 tonnes of both high and low sulphur grades in the same period in 2014, the sources said on Wednesday.

“High sulphur fuel oil is their big demand. They should have tendered for Q1 but didn’t — only LSFO,” said a Singapore-based fuel oil trader.

Fuel traders said the reduced demand for fuel oil came even as the country faced regular blackouts.

PSO has also sought to defer the December arrival of high sulphur fuel cargoes until next month, traders said. “The current tender expiring in December is deferred to January,” said one of the fuel sellers that sold into the tender for 1.275 million tonnes of fuel oil.

PSO could not be immediately reached for comment. The company sought via a tender a total of 4.48m tonnes of fuel oil this year, or a monthly average of 370,000 tonnes.

The current tender will close on Jan 23.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2015