Pakistan oil sales witnessed sharp decline of 32 percent on year-on-year basis during the first half of FY19 due to lower furnace oil (FO) sales. Excluding FO, volumes significantly went down by 15 percent on year-on-year, highest in last decade. After FO, largest decline was seen in HSD, which fell 22 percent due to availability of smuggled Iranian diesel and slowdown in economy, where Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) activities in Pakistan are down 0.65 percent in the first four months of FY19.

Motor Spirit (MS) sale was down two percent during the first half of FY19 after posting growth for nine consecutive years. Lower MS oil sales could be attributed to rise in petrol prices by around 24 percent on year-on-year basis. During December 2018, oil sales plummeted by 27 percent (ex FO: down 18 percent) amidst aforementioned reasons.

Company wise PSO remained worst performer with drop of around 49 percent in its sales volume, followed by Hascol (down 46 percent on year-on-year basis), an analyst at Topline Securities said. Attock Petroleum (APL) surprised by posting growth nine percent on year-on-year basis in its volumes, where its MS/HSD volumes were up 47 percent/24 percent during December 2018.

In white oil sales, especially in HSD/MS oil sales, HASCOL's performance was depressed as it witnessed decline of 50 percent in HSD/MS cumulative sales while APL's volumes in the same period are up 34 percent on year-on-year basis, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019