Pakistan is moving fast towards achieving self-reliance in crude oil production after the government accelerated exploration of indigenous hydrocarbon resources over the last three years.
“Capacity to produce crude oil and its indigenous refining is increasing gradually. Now, the country has started moving on the path of achieving self reliance in the sector,” a senior official of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources told APP.
Pakistan’s total crude oil production was 90,000 barrels per day. Answering a question, he said, the Byco Petroleum Company had established the country largest production unit, having refining 120,000 bpd oil, in Balochistan last year. He said the country’s oil refining capacity had dropped from 50 per cent mark, which was not considered a good sign for the national economy.
Presently, he said, as many as six oil refineries were operating in the country and they had full capacity to refine the product as per needs of the country. However, he said, a lot of work was yet to be done in the exploration sector to achieve autarky. He said currently 70 percent of the current oil demand was met through import and the government had planned to set up more oil refineries in the coming days.
Recently, he said, the government in a significant move to achieve self-reliance in the oil production sector, had given the task to Pakistan Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) to complete the much delayed multi-billion dollar Khalifa Coastal Oil Refinery project.
The coastal refinery will have the capacity to refine 250,000 bpd – equal to 13m tons of petroleum products per year, he added.
The project, approved in October 2007, was suspended several times due to paucity of funds, they added.
