Attock Refinery postpones month-long closure over OGRA advice

Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL), a subsidiary of Attock Oil Company Limited, has decided to postpone its month-long closure of some of its refinery’s units by a week amid advice from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).

The refinery’s Annual Turn Around, “which was earlier planned from February 10, 2024 has been deferred and is now expected to commence from February 18, 2024,” ATRL shared the development in its notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

“This has been done as per advice of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to reduce the overlapping period of refinery shutdown with another refinery and to ensure continued supplies of petroleum products,” read the notice.

Temporary shutdowns are essential to maintain and upgrade the equipment and machinery associated with the refinery.

Last month, ATRL informed the bourse that as part of turnaround to carry out “essential maintenance”, some of the existing units of the refinery will be shut down which will result in reduction of the refinery’s throughput to around 40%.

The authorities “have made alternate arrangements to handle crude oil production from northern oilfields and to meet any product shortfall”, ATRL said back then.

Attock Refinery was incorporated in Pakistan on November 8, 1978, as a private limited company and was converted into a public company on June 26, 1979. It is principally engaged in the refining of crude oil.

The company is a subsidiary of the Attock Oil Company Limited, England and its ultimate parent is Coral Holding Limited (a private limited company incorporated in Malta).

As per the company’s latest financial results, ATRL, despite witnessing higher sales, saw its profit-after-tax (PAT) drop over 37%, clocking in at Rs5.26 billion in 2QFY24 on a consolidated basis for the period ended December 31, 2023.

In the same period last year, ATRL saw a PAT of Rs8.39 billion.

The decrease comes on account of high cost of sales, which jumped to Rs93.88 billion in 2QFY24, as compared to Rs78.91 billion in SPLY, an increase of 19% YoY.