Parco suspends supply of jet fuel to PSO

Parco suspends supply of jet fuel to PSO

Thursday, March 22, 2012: The supply of jet fuel to PSO (Pakistan State Oil) has been suspended by Parco (Pak-Arab Refinery Company). If the problem persists, airports in the province of Punjab will suffer from worst fuel crisis
in years.

An unanimous official of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources read an letter from PSO to Petroleum Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, said “Though Parco has shut down for annual maintenance, it has a stock of jet fuel which it
is refusing to supply to PSO.”

PSO, a public sector company which supplies fuel to different sectors, asked the secretary to intervene and get jet fuel supply restored. “At present, Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad airports are facing fuel shortage because of suspension
of oil supply,” the ministry official said.

On the other hand, Parco spokesman said the company had stock at hand and would release it shortly. The official held that the company is meeting the requirements of his customers and will in due time release some fuel to PSO.

“We are supplying oil according to the business requirements of our customers. The annual shutdown was planned and the petroleum ministry and oil companies had been taken into confidence,” he said.

Parco is a joint venture between Pakistan and Abu Dhabi with 60% and 40% stakes respectively. Though the government of Pakistan is a major shareholder in the company, the Abu Dhabi government has exercised control over it.

According to the ministry official, Parco closed for annual maintenance on March 15 and had stock of 9,000 tons of jet fuel. Parco had committed to providing jet fuel by the first week of April to meet the needs of airports in
Punjab, but it stopped supply and demanded payment of dues. According to estimates, PSO has to pay Rs30.2 billion to Parco.

A PSO official told that the company had placed an import order for 25,000 tons of jet fuel, which would arrive on April 2. In February, it had also imported 25,000 tons.

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Posted by Wajahat Javed on Mar 23 2012. Filed under Business, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry