Diesel import soars 67pc in Nov on harvest, smuggling curbs

KARACHI: The country imported 317,000 tonnes of high-speed diesel in November, the highest this fiscal year, as demand rose from the harvesting season and the government clamped down on smuggling from Iran, oil industry data showed on Saturday.

The diesel imports increased 67 percent from October, when the country imported 190,000 tonnes, the data showed. In the first five months of the fiscal year, Pakistan imported 737,000 tonnes of diesel, compared with zero imports in July, when Iranian diesel flooded the market.

Industry officials said the Iranian diesel is still finding its way into Pakistan, but it saw a sharp cut in the last two and a half months.

"In July this year, the country didn’t import HSD as Iranian smuggled diesel was supplied in large quantities," an industry official said.

The month of August witnessed the import of over 109,000 tonnes, which kept on increasing during the months of September, October and November of this financial year.

Oil industry officials said the rise in diesel imports was mainly driven by the harvesting season, which boosted demand for agricultural machinery and irrigation pumps.

They said local refineries were producing more diesel to meet the domestic demand, as the government asked them to ramp up their output in November.

The rise in the diesel demand was anticipated at the beginning of November when the government had asked the refineries to increase their production of petroleum products especially HSD," the officials said.

The government directed the refineries to enhance their output after diesel demand soared by 70 percent in the first week of November compared with the previous month.

Industry officials said apart from the harvesting season-driven demand, the recovery in the economic activity has also pushed up the diesel sale in the country after industrial and transport activities slowed down in the first nine months of the current calendar year.

Major demand drivers for petroleum include the transport, industry and power segments of the country.

During FY23, the transport segment consumed 43.6 percent of MOGAS and 33.6 percent HSD of the total petroleum products consumed.

Industry officials said the figures for the refineries’ production of HSD are still being compiled, but the initial estimates suggest that their production of HSD is also on the higher side because of the higher import of crude oil in November compared to the preceding month of October this fiscal.