Islamabad March 18 2022: Commenting on the issue of new refineries coming up in Pakistan while giving an interview to international news agency, CEO of Pakistan State Oil Syed Muhammad Taha said several entities were exploring refining prospects in various parts of the country, including in the hub city of Gwadar in Balochistan province and Karak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"In view of the supply and demand pattern, one or two refineries may be installed in the country," he said, without providing details of the potential projects.
PSO is the entity nominated by Pakistan's government for a joint project with Saudi Arabia to set up a greenfield refinery with integrated petrochemical manufacturing facilities.
In addition, Pakistan Refinery Limited, a subsidiary of PSO, is aiming to upgrade and nearly double its refining capacity to 100,000 b/d, Taha said.
The upgraded refinery will produce Euro 5 gasoline and diesel and is estimated to cost around $1.2 billion. It will help the refinery to improve refining economics and margins by increasing output of premium products, while significantly reducing the production low-margin products, such as furnace oil.
PSO is the largest company in the country in terms of oil storage at around 1.1 million mt, accounting for 40% of the country's overall storage capacity.
Taha said that in order to cater to the growing demand for energy, there was a need for the country's projects to gain operational efficiency, in addition to the need to fast-track infrastructure projects.
"We initiated our 'New Storage Development Program' back in 2019 and have added 119,800 mt to our storage capacity at various locations including Shikarpur, Tarujabba, Faisalabad, ZOT and Mahmoodkot. Another 42,700 mt in Machike will be added to the total in the current financial year," he said.
Additional storage capacity of around 180,000 mt would be added as part of the development plan in the next 3-5 years at major consumption hubs, he added.