ISLAMABAD Aug 13 (Online): Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) has reportedly expressed concerns about its ability to process large volumes of Russian crude oil in order to reduce domestic fuel prices.
A major blow to the previous government’s efforts to increase dependence on cheap Russian crude oil.
According to media reports, analysts say that due to the embargo on its oil in European markets due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, the processing of Russian oil, available at a discount, is limited by the shortage of foreign currency and Pakistani refineries and ports. Difficulties due to capacity.
Another obstacle is that local refineries cannot extract as much petrol and diesel from Russian crude as they can from Middle Eastern crude. The first cargo ship of crude oil from Russia arrived in Pakistan in June and was paid for in yuan.
The target was to get 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Russia, which is about two-thirds of Pakistan’s total import requirement of 154,000 per day in 2022. The first shipment from Russia did not bring any immediate savings to consumers. Instead, the outgoing coalition government hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 20 per liter just a week before the dissolution of the National Assembly.
Sources said that PRL did not get significant financial benefit from processing Russian crude oil.
Sources added that the move to increase crude oil imports was allegedly a political stunt by the PDM government to appease consumers. Senior executives at Pakistan Refinery Limited did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
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