Pakistan To Restart Refinery Damaged In Fire 2 Years Ago

Pakistani company Byco Industries Inc will restart in July its refinery that was shut in October 2015 after a fire, Byco’s chief executive officer Amir Abbassciy told Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday.

The refinery is expected within the next three months to ramp up production to 85,000 bpd of crude oil processed, the manager said, adding that Pakistan’s fuel demand is expected to grow by 7 percent to 10 percent from now until 2020.

“Pakistan is one of the lowest per capita users of oil today. As the economy ramps up, this demand is going to rise by leaps and bounds,” the manager told Bloomberg.

Abbassciy went on to add:

“We are very bullish as far as the economy is concerned.”

According to data by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, quoted by Bloomberg, Pakistan paid US$8.8 billion to import oil products in the 10 months to April this year. This sum accounted for one-fifth of all Pakistani imports in that period.

Pakistan’s oil demand jumped by 13 percent between July 2016 and February 2017, according to data by Pakistani Oil Companies Advisory Committee, cited by Platts.

Motor gasoline sales surged by 20 percent year on year in that period, and high-speed diesel consumption jumped 15 percent. The main drivers of Pakistan’s increased in oil demand were the lower petroleum product prices, rising economy, foreign investment, and greater political stability. In the next three years, oil product demand is expected to further jump, due to growing per capita income, a rise in car sales, and higher foreign investment.

In 2016, Pakistan’s economy grew by 4.2 percent. The IMF expects the country’s real GDP to rise by 5.0 percent this year, and by 5.2 percent next year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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