The government is working on a multi-faceted strategy to accelerate oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas and achieving self-sufficiency in the crude oil refining sector.
“Currently, as many as six projects, investment initiatives and proposals in oil refining sector are in pipeline and at different stages to purify around 1.110 million Barrel per Day (BPD),” said a senior official privy to the petroleum sector development.
Under this strategy, the following refineries are being planned:
- Oil refinery and petrochemical complex of 300,000 BPD oil capacity at Gawadar, Balochistan
- PARCO’s 250,000 BPD Coastal Refinery at Hub, Balochistan
- SINO Infrastructure Hong Kong Oriental Times Corporation’s (SIOT) 250,000 BPD Gwadar Refining & Industrial Park
- Upcountry Deep Conversion Refinery and Crude Pipeline of 250,000-300,000 BPD oil in collaboration with Pakistan State Oil and Power China International Group
- Falcon Oil Private Limited’s 40,000 BPD oil refining facility at Dera Ismail Khan
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Refinery’s facility which will purify 20,000 BPD of oil in Kohat.
Currently, eight oil refineries including Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), National Refinery Limited (NRL), Pak¬Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO), Attock Refinery Limited (ARL), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL¬I), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL¬II), Enar Petroleum Refining Facility (ENAR¬I) and Enar Petroleum Refining Facility (ENAR-II) operate in the country.
Domestic Production and Import of Crude Oil
The country’s domestic production of crude oil witnessed a 12.8 percent increase during the nine-month period (July-March) of the last fiscal year. The domestic production of crude oil increased to 24.6 million barrels during the period under review as compared to 21.8 million barrels in the same period of the year 2017-18.
Moreover, the quantity of imported crude oil stood at 6.6 million tons, worth $3.4 billion, as compared to 7.8 million tons, worth $2.9 billion, during the corresponding period of 2017-18.
The official said the government is making all-out efforts to upgrade existing oil refineries and establish new deep conversion facilities for meeting the country’s fuel requirements.
He said that an unprecedented incentives package will be provided for setting up new deep conservation oil refineries, enabling them to import machinery, vehicles, plants and equipment and other materials.
