KARACHI, March 4: The industrial consumption of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) products fell by 5 per cent during July- February 2001-2002 as compared to the same period of 2000-2001.

This was stated by Managing Director, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Tariq Kirmani in a brief chat with Dawn in his office on Monday.

“POL demand has started improving from January and February, otherwise these figures would have been more worse,” he said referring to POL consumption decline by 9.1 per cent in July- December 2001 due to the reduced consumption of fuel oil and gas oil which constitute almost 86 per cent of total demand.

The September 11 incident in the US followed by Afghan war and India-Pakistan stand-off in December 2001 caused a slump in the economic activities in Pakistan, resulting in reduced domestic consumption of POL products, he said.

Figures of February could not be available but he said the outgoing month has really been good for the OMCs. POL consumption in January 2002 stood at 1.52 million tons as compared to 1.352 million tons in the same month of 2001. However, POL demand in July-January 2001-2002 plunged by 6.16 per cent as compared to 9.1 per cent in July-December and 10.80 per cent in July- November.

Country’s industrial POL demand, which was 18.1 million tons in 2000-2001, may see a marginal decline of 0.5 per cent by the end of fiscal 2001-2002 as compared to our estimates of five to six per cent fall.

He said diesel demand has already picked up due to activity in transport sector following movement of goods to Afghanistan. Increased supply of fuel oil to Wapda will further surge its demand as Wapda now needs more furnace oil for power generation owing to water shortage. The demand for petrol has also surged due to increase in sales of new cars from January. Jet fuel sales have been steady owing to re-arrival of foreign airlines to Pakistan.

The MD, PSO, said it is good to see that the large-scale manufacturing, which had been severely hit after September 11, has started picking pace.

On POL products demand in Afghanistan, Tariq Kirmani said the company has received enquiries for jet petrol and lubricants but so far no products have been shipped.

“A PSO team will visit Afghanistan to assess the demand as soon as security situation improves,” he said. Currently, the company is engaged in refuelling activities for incoming and outgoing Afghan relief flights.