ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is moving fast towards achieving self-reliance in crude oil production after the government accelerated exploration of indigenous hydrocarbon resources over the last four 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,” official sources told APP.
Pakistan’s total crude oil production was around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd). They said the Byco Petroleum Company had established the country’s largest production unit, having refining 120,000 bpd oil, in Balochistan.
The sources 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, they 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, the sources said, a lot of work was yet to be done in the exploration sector to achieve autarky.
They 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, they 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 13 million tons of petroleum products per year, the sources added. The project, approved in October 2007, was suspended several times due to paucity of funds.
