PAPCO white oil pipeline upgrade likely by Oct: official

KARACHI: The Pak-Arab Pipeline Company (PAPCO)’s white oil pipeline upgradation to multi-product use is expected to be completed in the last quarter of this year, which would enable oil marketing companies to maintain 20-day fuel cover across the country, an official said on Thursday.

“We are able to maintain 20-day cover for diesel because of the PAPCO’s existing infrastructure, as fuel is easily and promptly moved to upcountry.

However, supply infrastructure for motor gasoline (petrol) is not as much robust,” said Habib Haider, Manager External communications Shell Pakistan, talking to newsmen.

PAPCO operates a state-of-the-art cross-country pipeline system to transport refined High-Speed Diesel (HSD) from Karachi ports to up-country.

PSO, Shell, PARCO and Total hold 12 percent, 26 percent, 51 percent and 11 percent stakes, respectively, in Pak-Arab Pipeline Company.

Haider said Pak-Arab Pipeline Company was upgrading the pipeline infrastructure for multi-product use, which was likely to be completed by October this year and would enable sufficient storage of motor gasoline in the country.

“PAPCO is converting its existing 26-inch 786 km long white oil pipeline for multi-product use.

It is a strategic project, which involves construction of new diesel and motor gasoline storage tanks, gantries for product delivery and transmix processing facility including related civil, mechanical, electrical, instrument and control works,” he added.

It must be noted that after completion of this project, storage of 255,000 tons of fuel capacity will be added into the system.

The project has significant advantages for the country and the energy sector, including reduced cost of transportation for petrol from Karachi to Mehmood Kot.

Talking about the recent fuel shortage in the country, the Shell official said the demand was under-pitched in March, which was no one’s fault.

“No one could have seen the demand doubling in May and June,” he said.

Haider said the industry had forecasted lesser demand, due to which the government advised companies to cancel their import supplies after April, which also was one of the factors.

“A vessel has arrived, and supplies will be restored to normal from Friday. Another vessel is arriving on June 20th, because now we understand the demand pattern,” Haider informed the

To a question, Haider said industry was not in a hurry to go for deregulation of petrol and diesel. "We need to understand the mechanism first, and we can do it through studying the models adopted by other countries,” he said.