KARACHI: The country’s overall petroleum sales dropped 27 per cent mainly due to a massive p 59 per cent plunge in the production of furnace oil (FO) in the outgoing fiscal year.

An analyst at Top Line Securities on Tuesday said the economic slowdown and significant increase in petroleum prices due to rupee devaluation crumbled the petroleum sales in 2018-19.

The FO sales continued its declining trend owing to change in the country’s generation mix to relatively cheaper fuels -- regasified liquefied natural gas and coal.

High-speed diesel (HSD) volumes shrank by 20pc year-on-year to 7.2m tonnes due to its smuggling from Iran.

Petrol sales remained flat at 7.4m tonnes in FY19 compared to last 10-year (FY09-18) compound average growth rate of 18pc. Muted sales in petrol could be attributed to the declining purchasing power of consumers amidst inflation and increase in petrol prices by 30pc in the outgoing fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd , 2019