Govt Imported 60.4 Mbbl Oil, Produced 21.8 Mbbl Oil In Eight Months: Miftah Ismail

The government has imported 60.4 million barrel (mbbl) crude oil and produced 21.8 mbbl oil locally during eight months of the current fiscal year from July to February.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Apr, 2018 ) :The government has imported 60.4 million barrel (mbbl) crude oil and produced 21.8 mbbl oil locally during eight months of the current fiscal year from July to February.

Unveiling the Economic Survey of Pakistan for the current fiscal year here on Thursday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail said, "During Jul-Feb 2017-18, the country imported 60.4 million barrels of crude oil, while it locally extracted 21.8 million barrels oil." He said the annual consumption of petroleum products in the country was around 26 million tons during the last fiscal year.

He said the indigenous crude oil met only 15 percent of the country's total requirements, while 85 percent requirements were met through imports in the shape of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

"The indigenous and imported crude is refined by six major and two small refineries," he added. The adviser said the government was making efforts to bring improvement in existing refineries as well as attracting foreign investment in the sector.

Recently, he said, Byco Oil Pakistan Limited (Byco) had established an oil refinery at Hub, Balochistan, with refinery capacity of 120,000 barrels per day (5 million tons per annum) at a cost of US$ 400 million.

He said Byco had also installed Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facility for transportation of imported crude oil and petroleum products from ships to the storage tanks. The capacity of said facility was 12 M.

tons per annum. While, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), he said, had started Euro II (0.05 percent Sulphur HSD), besides it installed an isomerization plant and enhanced the production of motor gasoline.

Miftah said Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) had also installed an isomerization plant in 2016, since its production of motor gasoline had doubled. He said Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) was implementing a coastal refinery project at Khalifa Point, near Hub, Balochistan, which was a state of the art refinery having capacity of 250,000 barrel per day (over 11 million tons per annum).

The project's estimated cost, he said, was over US$ 5 billion. On the directive of the Prime Minister, 1811 acres land had been allocated for the establishment of PARCO Coastal Refinery. The PARCO was working on a detailed feasibility study of the project, which was expected to be completed by end of 2023, he added.