Petrol consumption in the country swelled by 34 per cent in November owing the upsurge in gas load-shedding to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations in the country.
Central Chairman of All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha in a statement issued said breakup on import data indicates High Speed Diesel (HSD) volumes’ recorded bump of 13 per cent. APCNGA believes the increase is mainly due to increased gas load shedding to CNG sector as compared to last year. He said that while warning the government if natural gas supply to CNG sector is not restored immediately, the country will have to compromise on restraining its import bill.
APCNGA said the prevalent gas curtailment to CNG stations petrol sales continue to show startling results. During the month of July, he said, petrol sales touched record high of 250k tonnes up by a massive 15.5 per cent from the previous high of 217k tones, recorded last month. He said government was saving billions of rupees annually on petroleum, due to the usage of CNG. However, the gas load shedding to CNG will further escalate the burden on nation
exchequer, he added.
The sales are a massive 33.4 per cent up from last year sales, while product contribution in the sales mix has increased to 14 per cent as against 10 per cent in the same period last year. Paracha said, ‘Pakistan’s oil import bill has witnessed a phenomenal rise of 53.9 per cent in the first four months (Jul-Oct) of the current financial year as the total oil import bill has reached to a level of US$5.013 billion against US$3.257 billion in fourth quarters.’
He was of the view that a surge in petroleum products clearly identifies a high demand of petroleum products in the domestic market which was not being fulfilled by the local refinery’s capacity. He said prevailing winters will drastically increase domestic demand for natural gas for heating, while economy’s power generation is currently heavily reliant on oil. Further, substitution of oil with gas will dent forex reserves of the country and increase already mounted circular debt in the energy chain. Simultaneously, further load shedding at CNG stations will give rise to protests by CNG pumps and public.