NRL stops supplying fuel to PSO

KARACHI: National Refinery Limited (NRL) has decided to halt supply to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) after the state-owned oil marketing company it stopped the payments to the refinery, The News learnt on Thursday.

PSO has been suffering from a severe financial crisis due to lack of payments from various sectors on account of supply of petroleum products. Currently, the PSO owes NRL Rs3.469 billion.

According to sources, the OMC stopped the payments of refineries a couple of days back. These refineries are the suppliers of diesel, petrol, aviation fuel, furnace oil etc to the state-owned company, having the largest share in the sales of petroleum products in the country.

“NRL has decided to halt the supply to PSO after the stoppage of payment and intimated the OMC in written,” sources familiar to the development told The News.

Sources said that NRL was the first and other refineries might follow suit.

NRL Managing Director Jamil Khan was contacted to solicit his views; however he did not respond to either calls or messages.

The oil sector giant has been entangled in financial woes for the last many years, but in recent months the situation has aggravated immensely as PSO’s inter-corporate debt has increased to Rs1,024 billion with receivables at Rs762.653 billion and payables at Rs261.155 billion.

The breakup of the PSO payments to the local refineries showed that it has to pay Rs25 billion to Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO), Rs10 billion to Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), Rs3.469 billion to NRL, Rs9.049 billion to Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), and Rs4.108 billion to Cnergyico.

Details of the company’s receivables show that the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has so far emerged as the biggest defaulter of Pakistan State Oil.

The SNGPL owes the state-owned OMC Rs492.102 billion as of March 8, 2023.

The power sector continues to haunt the state-owned oil marketing company as it is required to pay Rs178 billion followed by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and the government of Pakistan, which owe PSO Rs92.5 billion.

The most crucial payment of Rs124.666 billion in the head of LPS (late payment surcharge) is also part of the total receivables that have soared to Rs762.653 billion.