Due to the substantial decline in demand brought on by the economy’s slowdown and the worst inflation ever, imports of the petroleum group fell by roughly 25.94% year over year in October.
The biggest price increase in history also had a part in the decline in the use of petroleum-based products. According to data collected by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the value and volume of petroleum product imports fell by 36.67 and 46.86 percent, respectively, in October. Crude oil imports fell in volume by 22.92% but rose in value by 1.93%.
Similarly, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports decreased by 37.54 percent year over year in October. This would have resulted in comparatively less electricity being produced using LNG as a substitute for furnace oil.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports, on the other hand, increased 42.13 percent.
Total oil imports decreased 2.31 percent between July and October of FY23, from $6.19 billion to $6.05 billion in 4MFY23.
The PBS has not yet made available statistics for local petroleum output in October, although data from the prior three months indicated a decline in production locally. In September of the current fiscal year, local petroleum product production fell 24.4 percent from the same month last year.
Reduced crude oil imports also caused local refineries to produce less petroleum products.
Exports of petroleum products and crude, however, increased in October compared to the same month last year. In contrast to last month, when there were no exports of crude oil, Pakistan exported 59,830 tonnes of petroleum products during the month under review.
However, during the month under consideration, exports of coal and naphtha fell. The output of all 11 petroleum products was 18.9% lower during the first four months of the current fiscal year according to PBS statistics. Two important oil products, gasoline and high-speed diesel, which are mostly utilised in transportation and agriculture, had output declines of 13.7 percent and 25.5 percent, respectively.