KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Friday performed the groundbreaking for upgradation of Rs 15 billion White Oil Pipeline that would provide uninterrupted petrol and diesel supply upcountry in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
Addressing a ceremony here the Prime Minister said the 786 km long strategic project would strengthen country’s energy security and was a most efficient way of transportation of petroleum products internationally. He expressed the hope that the project of multi-grading of the oil pipeline would complete by 2019.
He recalled the tragic Bahawalpur accident in which over 200 lives were lost after an oil tanker met a road accident. He mentioned that a tanker leaves the storage facility at the port every two minutes and the utilisation of the oil pipeline would lessen the load on roads. He said efforts were also underway to upgrade the fleet of country’s 10,000 tankers and make them safer.
Addressing the concerns of the transport sector he said Pakistan’s petrol consumption was increasing at a rate of 20 per cent, while that of diesel was increasing at a rate of 12 per cent. He said the tankers would continue to provide secondary transportation and witness an increase in their services. He said additional motorway was under-construction and they would continue to provide services to the people.
Abbasi said with the completion of China Pakistan Economic Corridor there would be increased economic growth and hoped the country’s GDP would increase to 6 per cent next year and with the full utilisation of oil pipeline, the cost of transportation would also drop from Rs 1 to Rs 1.50 per litre.
The Prime Minister said the PML-N government had transformed the energy and petroleum landscape over the past four years and today now international grade of Ron 92 was available instead of Ron 87. Similarly, he said the diesel fuel also had been upgraded to Euro-II standard diesel. He said that today Ron 95 and 97 are also available. He said similarly the supply of CNG had been stabilised, while electricity load shedding had ended and the country was self-sufficient in power production.
He said Pakistan was saving precious foreign exchange in billions by taking a firm decision of not importing furnace oil anymore. He regretted that in the past these important changes were ignored and today the plants were being run on Liquified Natural Gas.
He was also appreciative of the support extended by the Sindh Chief Minister in all nation-building efforts.
The mega infrastructure project owned by Pak Arab Pipeline Company Limited (PAPCO) would pump diesel and petrol to central Pakistan, which has a demand for almost 60 per cent of the total petroleum consumption in the country. The transportation capacity of the 26 inches diameter pipeline system is 8 million tonnes per year, which can be enhanced up to 12 million tonnes per year. The project would provide additional strategic product storage of about 221,000 tonnes.
The joint venture company, Pak-Arab Pipeline Company Ltd. (PAPCO) was created for implementation of the 786 km White Oil Pipeline Project (WOPP) from Port Qasim near Karachi and terminates at Mahmood Kot near Muzaffargarh. It has three pumping stations and terminal stations at Port Qasim, Shikarpur and Mahmood Kot.
PARCO has a 51 per cent majority share in PAPCO while Shell, PSO and TOTAL PARCO Marketing Limited have 26 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent shares in equity respectively.
The project would help transport oil at a fast rate, up the country, by cutting out on delays caused by road closures, accidents and minimal environmental impact. The White Oil Pipeline would also reduce movement of thousands of trucks operating out of Kemari to Mehmoodkot and back. The cost of transportation from Karachi to Mahmood kot would be cut by half and bring in efficiency, safety, reliability and improvement in the logistics system besides reduction in degradation of road infrastructure.
