KARACHI: Total sales of petroleum products in the country arrived at 1.17 million tons in April 2023, depicting a massive dip of 46 percent on year-on-year basis.

The decline in the sales of petroleum products in the country is majorly attributable to higher petroleum prices, economic slowdown, an increase in smuggled petroleum products from Iran and lower FO-based power generation, Muhammad Iqbal Jawaid at Arif Habib Limited said.

MS offtake went down by 24 percent YoY, to arrive at 0.58 million tons in April 2023. Likewise, High Speed Diesel (HSD) volumes plummeted by 50 percent YoY, to arrive at 0.46 million tons in April 2023. Furthermore, Furnace Oil (FO) sales volumes plunged by 83 percent YoY in April 2023, clocking-in at 0.07 million tons.

On a MoM basis, petroleum sales registered a jump of 6 percent during April 2023 amid ongoing harvesting season resulting in higher HSD demand and absence of heavy rainfall across the country, he said. Hence, volumes of MS and HSD reported a growth of 4 percent and 16 percent MoM, respectively. Meanwhile, FO sales declined by 16 percent on month-on-month basis.

During the first 10 months of FY23, sales of total petroleum products depicted a drop of 24 percent YoY to 13.97 million tons compared to 18.44 million tons in the same period last year.

Product-wise data showed a decline in all categories; the offtake of MS, HSD, and FO clocked-in at 6.17 million tons, 5.28 million tons, and 1.87 million tons, respectively.

Company-wise analysis depicted that PSO’s offtake plummeted by 53 percent YoY in April 2023, which was contributed by a decline in sales of MS, HSD, and FO by 22 percent, 52 percent and 98 percent YoY, respectively. Similarly, sales of APL and Shell reduced by 31 percent and 43 percent YoY, respectively, whereas, Hascol’s offtake reported a mammoth jump of 4.1x YoY.

During the first 10 months of FY23, PSO’s market share dropped by a meagre 0.2 percent to 50.5 percent compared to 50.7 percent in the first 10 months of FY22. On the other hand, market share of Shell remained stable at 7.7 percent YoY. Meanwhile, market share of APL and Hascol in the first 10 months of FY23 increased to 9.4 percent (9.2 percent in the same period last year) and 2.1 percent (1.3 percent in the same period last year), respectively. Meanwhile, the market share of other OMCs dropped to 30.3 percent in the first 10 months of FY23 vis-a-vis 31.0 percent in the first 10 months of FY22.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023