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KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) suspended furnace oil supplies to Wapda, Kapco and Hubco by 1.00 pm on Thursday. However it had to restore the supply to state-run Wapda after the government's intervention. Fuel oil dispatches had been made to Wapda in the evening but the supplies to Hubco and Kapco would remain suspended, a PSO spokesperson said. The three power generation companies had been receiving 20,000-23,000 tons of furnace oil from the PSO on daily basis, he added.
The spokesperson said that the PSO had received Rs35 billion from the power sector in the first week of January 2011 and since then no payments had been made to the state-run oil company.
The spokesperson said the PSO had discontinued fuel supplies to power sector to avoid impending default. PSO had to receive Rs47.22 billion from Wapda, Rs73.29 billion from Hubco and Rs28.86 billion from Kapco.
“The decision to cut off supplies has come after a series of deliberations by the top management. PSO is on the verge of impending default and has been supplying uninterrupted fuel to the power sector to responsibly meet the energy requirements of the nation,” he explained.
However, given that the total receivables of the company had increased to an astounding Rs158.65 billion, the management was left with no choice but to truncate supplies to the energy sector.
PSO has exhausted its resources for financing future product supplies as it has not been able to make timely payments to its suppliers due to non-payment from the power sector.
The company sent SOS messages and reminders to all power entities for payments since the outset of the current month, but it has not received any positive response.
