KARACHI, May 5: Surprisingly Pakistan’s crude oil production remained stagnant for more than a decade hovering around 65,000-68,000 barrels per day while the consumption shot up sharply during this period.

The ‘Statistical Bulletin-May 2012’ issued by the State Bank on Friday reveals that the country’s crude oil production during the current fiscal year was almost same as it was in 2001-02.

According to the report the crude production in July 2011 was 2.015 million barrels while it was 2.040 million in February 2012 which makes it 67,000 bpd and 68,000 bpd, respectively.

According to the Economic Survey 2001-02, the crude oil production was 64,361 bpd during July-March of the same year.

According to latest SBP report the oil production in 2007-08 was about 70,000 bpd, 65,843 bpd in 2008-09, 64,947 bpd in 2009-10 and 65,865 bpd in 2010-11.

There is no answer in any government report that why crude oil production has been stagnant for such a long time while the consumption has been rising each year despite addition of other energy resources like natural gas and coal.

No report explores the reasons for this unchanged oil production dilemma while the import of this oil product has crippled the economy of the country.

Only last year the government imported oil petroleum products worth $12.317 billion which was almost 33 per cent of the entire import bill. In the first nine months of this fiscal year oil import bill rose to $10.794 billion or 36 per cent of the total imports in the nine-month period. The oil bill may touch $14 billion by end of the current fiscal year.

Some analysts believe that oil production is not increased by policy but they don’t offer valid reasons to justify their allegation.

The country is paying heavy cost of energy shortages that have crippled economic growth. The average economic growth rate of the last three years was just 2 per cent, which is the lowest in the country’s history.

According to the Economic Survey 2010-11, the balance recoverable reserves of crude oil have been estimated at 280.647 million barrels. The average crude oil production increased to 65,996 bpd during July-March 2010-11 from 65,245 bpd during the same period last year.

The overall oil production increased to 18.08 million barrels during July-March 2010-11 from 17.88 million barrels during the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 1.15 per cent.

During the period 2001-02 to 2009-10, the consumption of petroleum products increased by an average of 1.3 per cent per annum.

The consumption of gas, electricity and coal increased at an average of 6 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 9.1 per cent per annum. This long term trend suggests that composition of annual energy consumption is shifting from petroleum products to other energy sources.

Energy consumption of petroleum and gas has witnessed a negative growth during July-March 2010-11, while electricity consumption increased by 2.8 per cent and that of coal increased substantially by 10.29 per cent during the period under review.