ISLAMABAD: Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has proposedconstruction of ten new oil storage facilities, having combined capacity of304,445 metric tons (mt) petrol and 446,335mt diesel, during the financialyear 2018-19.
Moreover, ten new oil marketing companies are expected to be establishednext year for more effective supply of petroleum products across thecountry, official sources told APP.
Answering a question, they informed that the government had imported 60.4million barrel (mbbl) crude oil and produced 21.8 mbbl oil locally duringeight months of the current fiscal year from July to February to meetever-growing energy needs of the country.
They said the annual consumption of petroleum products in the countryremained around 26 mt during the last fiscal year.
The sources said the indigenous crude oil met only 15 percent of thecountry’s total requirements, while 85 percent requirements were metthrough imports in the shape of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
“The indigenous and imported crude is refined by six major and two smallrefineries,” they added.
They said the government was making efforts to bring improvement inexisting refineries as well as attracting foreign investment in the sector.
Recently, the sources said, Byco Oil Pakistan Limited (Byco) hadestablished an oil refinery at Hub, Balochistan, with refining capacity of120,000 barrels per day (5 million tons per annum) at a cost of US$ 400million.
They said Byco had also installed Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facility fortransportation of importedcrude oil and petroleum products from ships to the storage tanks. Thecapacity of said facility was 12 M.tons per annum.
While, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), they said, had started Euro II (0.05percent Sulphur HSD), besides it installed an isomerization plant andenhanced the production of motor gasoline.
They said Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) had also installed anisomerization plant in 2016 since its production of motor gasoline haddoubled.
They said Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) was implementing a coastalrefinery project at Khalifa Point, near Hub, Balochistan, which was a stateof the art refinery, having capacity of 250,000 barrel per day (over 11million tons per annum).
The project’s estimated cost is over US$ 5 billion, while 1,811 acres landhas been allocated for the purpose. Currently, the PARCO is working on adetailed feasibility study of the project, which is expected to becompleted by end of 2023, they added. – APP