December 1, 2021: Oil sales during the month of November fell by 12% month-on-month to 1.75 million tons from 1.99m tons in October, 2021 due to lower sales furnace oil (FO), latest data released by the Oil Companies’ Advisory Council showed on Wednesday.
“Total petroleum and lubricant sales clocked in at 1.75mn tons in Nov’21, depicting an increase of 2%YoY while down by 12%MoM on account of significant decline in FO volumes which clocked in at 0.18m tones, down by 46%MoM compared to 0.33m tons in Oct’21,” said Arif Habib Ltd Analyst Arsalan Hanif in a note.
On a cumulative basis, 5MFY22 fuel sales increased by 18%YoY to 9.6m tons compared to 8.16m during the corresponding period last year.
Monthly figures showed sales of MS, HSD and FO witnessed decline of 9%, 3% and 46% to 0.7m, 0.81m and 0.18m respectively.
Depressed November petroleum sales show the reluctance of power producers to purchase FO from refineries resulting in pile up of high sulphur product at storages. Earlier, local refineries had warned of a looming fuel crisis in country if power sector remains unwilling to take FO from them.
