The main petroleum commodities that contributed in negative growth of the petroleum products in May 2011 included jet fuel oil which decreased by 19.51 percent during the month under review.

The production of motor spirits decreased by 12.31 percent while the production of diesel oil declined by 50.46 percent and furnace oil by 8.04 percent, according to provisional figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS).

The petroleum products that witnessed positive growth in production included kerosene oil, production of which increased by 89.15 percent.

Similarly, the production of High Speed Diesel increased by 4.85 percent, lubricating oil by 0.29 percent, jute batching oil by 7.24 percent, solvent Naptha by 17.18 percent and LPG by 23.95 percent during May 2011.

The overall Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector showed growth of 1.33 per cent during July-May (2010-11) against the same period of last year.

The LSM witnessed negative growth of 2.28 per cent in May 2011 as against the same month of the last year.

On monthly basis, the industries showed recovery signs while the oil and gas sector under the domain of the provinces registered negative growth.

The products monitored by Ministry of Industries witnessed growth of 5.47 in production in May 2011, however, the oil and gas sector witnessed negative growth of 2.11 percent while the production of industries monitored by provincial Bureaus of Statistics also declined by 11.73 percent, the FBS reported.

During the last eleven months July-May (2010-11), oil and gas sector witnessed negative growth of 2.99 percent while the production of industries monitored by provincial Bureaus of Statistics declined by 1.52 percent.

The LSM products monitored by Ministry of Industries witnessed positive growth of 3.53 percent during the period, the FBS data revealed.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011