ISLAMABAD: Road transport of petroleum crude and products to and from Attock Oil Refinery (ARL) was restored late last night with the support and intervention of Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and the General Headquarters (GHQ), the refinery’s management confirmed.

A day earlier, the refinery was forced to shut down due to road closures.

The refinery is the only such facility catering to the fuel requirements of almost all of central and northern Punjab, as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

ARL also provides Furnace Fuel Oil to independent power producers (IPPs) to help mitigate power shortages in the country.

In a mandatory regulatory filing to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Wednesday, ARL reported that its main crude distillation plant with 32,0000 barrels of daily refining capacity has been shut down.

It said it could not send out refined products or receive crude oil coming from oil fields.

“We wish to inform you that due to the expected arrival of foreign delegates in Islamabad, there has been an abrupt suspension of oil tank lorry movement to and from ARL. This situation has adversely impacted crude oil receipts as well as product dispatches, directly affecting refinery operations,” ARL wrote to PSX and SECP.

It further added that due to constraints in product dispatch, ARL’s stocks of Motor Spirit (MS) and High-Speed Diesel (HSD) have increased significantly.

“Concurrently, our crude oil receipts have also declined significantly due to the road closures. As a result, we have shut down our main crude distillation unit (HBU-I) of 32,400 barrels per stream day (BPSD) capacity till improvement of the current traffic restrictions”, the refinery’s management said in its mandatory regulatory reporting.

Over the last week, ARL had requested the Petroleum Division and the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to facilitate the movement of oil lorries to and from its refinery.

In separate letters, it drew attention to the closure of roads for the movement of oil tank lorries from April 18 to April 26 due to the expected arrival of foreign delegates in Islamabad.