The people of Pakistan have been suffering from the continuously rising prices of Petrol, electricity and gas. These categories mainly cause the price hikes of almost all the consumable items.
The salaried and low–income people are particularly affected by the worsening situation of historically high inflation. Apparently there does not seem any measure which could control the increase in the prices of gas and electricity.
The government had opted to import crude oil from Russia which was available at the lower price so as to provide cheaper oil to the people.
The shipment of oil has reached in Pakistan last month but the benefits of cheaper oil cannot be passed on to the end users due to the old technology, being used by the existing oil refineries of the country.
At present, there are five oil refineries in Pakistan out of which one was established before the Partition of India. ?Two of the refineries were set up before sixty years. The other two rely on old technology.
The imported Russian crude oil was processed at Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) which processed more furnace oil than diesel and petrol.
The sources of petroleum industry confess that the remaining refineries will process the crude oil in the same way as there too is being used the old technology.
Surprisingly, no government in Pakistan took any step to upgrade the oil refining sector. The government has recently approved Greenfield reefing policy to allow the establishment of deep-conversion refining. But it is still withholding Brownfield refining policy for the upgradation of local refineries.
The Chairman of the Board of Director at Pakistan Refinery Limited, Tariq Kirmani while talking to a news channel said that the payback from a brownfield policy far exceeds the benefits anticipated from a greenfield policy. He added that PRL is committed to its Refinery Expansion and Upgrade Project (REUP) and requires support from the government now more than ever.