KARACHI: The country’s overall oil consumption jumped 13 per cent to 12.67 million tonnes in 8MFY21 reflecting improved economic activities as the sales of furnace oil (FO), high-speed diesel (HSD) and petrol posted growth of 36pc, 15pc and 7pc respectively during the period.

Arsalan Hanif at Arif Habib Ltd attributed robust oil sales to resilience displayed by the economy with better agricultural yields, massive growth in sales of two/three/four-wheelers. Besides absence of CNG and strict control on illegal Iranian oil increased the demand for petrol and diesel.

Sales of FO, HSD and petrol stood at over two million tonnes, 4.84m tonnes and 5.37m tonnes, respectively, during 8MFY21 as compared to 1.54m tonnes, 4.21m tonnes and five million tonnes in the same period last year.

Mr Hanif said that total oil sales fell by eight per cent month-on-month to 1.40m tonnes in February from 1.52m tonnes in January. However, overall oil sales swelled by 26pc year-on-year.

He said during 8MFY21, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) managed to expand its market share by 1.6pc year-on-year to 46.1pc compared to 44.5pc in 8MFY20. New entrants have been giving a tough time to existing players as their overall market share has increased by 2.2pc year-on-year to 32.3pc against 30.1pc in same period last year. Hascol, Attock Petroleum Ltd (APL) and Shell Pakistan’s market share dropped by 1.8pc, 1.6pc and 0.5pc year-on-year to 4.7pc (6.4pc in 8MFY20), 9.1pc (10.7pc in 8MFY20) and 7.8pc (8.3pc in 8MFY20), respectively.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2021