KARACHI: The petroleum oil and lubricants (POL) sales in Pakistan declined by 21.7 percent in the month of November 2017 mainly due to lower power generation from furnace oil-run power plants. As per the provisional figures, oil marketing companies (OMC) volumes for November 2017 clocked in at 1.90 million MT, showing 21.7 percent month-on-month (MoM) decline over 2.5 million MT in October 2017 and fell by 701 percent year-on-year against 2.01 million MT in November 2016. The sales for FO took a plunge as a result of a ban on FO based power plants, going down 55 percent MoM, Motor Spirit (MS) sales also took a hit, going down by 8.9 percent MoM whereas High Speed Diesel (HSD) sales exhibited a marginal increase of 1.6 percent MoM. Looking at volumetric sales, HSD showed an increase of 13000 MT to clock in at 851000 up from last month’s volume of 838000 MT, up 1.6 percent MoM. FO showed a decline of 489000 MT to clock in at 401000 MT down from last month’s volume of 891000 MT, down by 55 percent MoM, as a result of the government’s ban on furnace oil-run power plants. MS and HSD sales have remained buoyant throughout the year while FO numbers for November showed a substantial decline of 28.9 percent YoY. With a 5.9 percent YoY increase, MS sales climbed to 31000 MT up from 621000 MT whereas HSD sales shrunk by a paltry 2.2 percent YoY to 851000 MT up from 870MT as of last November. SHELL was the surprise performer registering an increase of 6.2 percent in overall volumes as the competition’s growth was hampered by the sudden decline in FO off take in the previous months. Hascol was the biggest loser in MS and HSD sales by showing a strong volumetric decline of 18.5 percent and 14.2 percent MoM on a monthly basis while Attock Petroleum Limited (APL) lost the biggest chunk of FO with a 53.1 percent MoM decrease. PSO showed a decline of 12.2 percent MoM in MS sales this time around and its HSD sales declined by 17.7 percent YoY. “We foresee FO sales to recover in the ongoing month with Hydel production declining in December owing to severe winter conditions while our channel checks also suggest that Hubco and Kapco plants are back online. However, we expect FO volumes to decline in the longer term with some of the decline being negated by sharp growth in HSD and Mogas on the back of strong construction activity and automobile demand,” said an Elixir Securities’ analyst. Published in Daily Times, December 6th 2017.