Daily Times

KARACHI: Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in Pakistan sold 1.63 million MT petroleum products during July 2018, 13.8 percent lower than the 1.9 million MT reported for the earlier month mainly due to lower Furnace Oil (FO) demand during the month.

FO sales declined by 45.7 percent MoM from 645,371 tons sold in June 2018 to 350,721 tons sold in July 2018-a major concern for OMCs and Refineries.

Industry Motor Spirit (MS) sales remained largely flat MoM, coming in at 613,962 tons for July 2018 as compared to 614,118 tons sold in June 2018. High Speed Diesel (HSD) sales were up by 4.2 percent MoM from 589,155 tons in June 2018 to 614,106 tons in July 2018.

Hascol led the volumes posting 17.2 percent month-on-month (MoM) increase in sales-from 195,340 MT in June 2018 to 228,989 MT in July 2018. Hascol’s sales in all three major products (HSD, MS, and FO) showed a MoM increase, with MS volumes growing by 14 c MoM, HSD volumes growing by 22.7 c MoM, and FO volumes growing by 11.3 percent MoM.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) proved to be the laggard during the month, having sold 31.1 percent lower volumes in July compared to the earlier month, majorly dragged down by FO demand. MS sales volumes at PSO were down by 2.7 percent MoM, while HSD volumes were up by a meager 0.2 percent MoM .

Attock Petroleum’s sales volumes slumped by 3.2 percent MoM from 175,806 tons in June 2018 to 170,140 tons in July 2018.

In seven months of 2018, the industry sold a total of 12.89 million tons of Petroleum Products, compared to 14.89 million tons sold in the same period of previous year, representing 13.4 percnet decline.

PSO’s overall market share slipped by 9.9 ppt MoM in June from 49.4 percent to 39.5 percent this year.

Published in Daily Times, August 3^rd 2018.