Six oil refineries with capacity of 1.1 million bpd being worked out

September 24, 2019: Cognizant of the ever-growing energy requirements of the country, the government is working on a multi-faceted strategy to accelerate oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas, besides achieving self-sufficiency in crude oil refining sector.

“Currently, as many as six projects, investment initiatives and proposals in oil refining sector are in pipeline and at different stages to purify around 1.110 million Barrel per Day (BPD),” a senior official privy to the petroleum sector development said on Tuesday.

Under the strategy, an oil refinery and petrochemical complex of 300,000 BPD oil capacity would be set up at Gawadar, Balochistan; PARCO would install 250,000 BPD Coastal Refinery at Hub, Balochistan; SINO Infrastructure Hong Kong Oriental Times Corporation Ltd (SIOT) would establish 250,000 BPD Gwadar Refining & Industrial Park, Upcountry Deep Conversion Refinery and Crude Pipeline of 250,000-300,000 BPD oil would be set up in collaboration with Pakistan State Oil and Power China International Group, Falcon Oil Private Limited to set up 40,000 BPD oil refining facility at Dera Ismail Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Refinery Limited would establish the facility to purify 20,000 BPD oil in Kohat.

At present, eight oil refineries including Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), National Refinery Limited (NRL), Pak¬Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO), Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL¬I), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL¬II), Enar Petroleum Refining Facility (ENAR¬I) and Enar Petroleum Refining Facility (ENAR-II) operate in the country.

The country's domestic production of crude oil witnessed around 12. 8 percent increase during the nine-month period (July-March) of the last fiscal year. “The domestic production of crude oil remained 24.6 million barrels during the period under review as compared to 21.8 million barrels in the same period of year 2017-18.

Moreover, the quantity of imported crude oil stood at 6.6 million tons worth $3.4 billion as compared to 7.8 million tons of $ 2.9 billion worth during the corresponding period of 2017-18.

The official said the government was making all-out efforts to upgrade existing oil refineries and establish new deep conversion facilities for meeting the country’s fuel requirements in a smooth manner.

He said an unprecedented incentives package was in place for setting up new deep conservation oil refineries, enabling them to import machinery, vehicles, plants and equipment and other materials.

APP