KARACHI: Prices of petroleum products are likely to soar by Rs10-12 in Pakistan following supply disruptions following drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on Saturday that cut more than 5% of global oil supply.
Analysts have expressed fear, in consequence, a significant hike in prices of gold, daily use items, essential commodities and imported products in the country. Pakistan’s import bill will increase by $800 million, further raising inflation in the state.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose by as much as 19.5% to $71.95 per barrel, the biggest intra-day jump since Jan. 14, 1991. The front-month contract was at $66.28 per barrel, up $6.06, or 10.1%, from its previous close, by 0449 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures climbed by as much as 15.5% to $63.34 a barrel, the biggest intra-day percentage gain since June 22, 1998. The front-month contract was at $59.77 a barrel, up $4.92, or 9%, at 0449 GMT.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter and the attack on state-owned producer Saudi Aramco’s crude processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais has cut output by 5.7 million barrels per day. The company has not given a timeline for the resumption of full output.
On August 31, Pakistan’s finance division had notified new prices of petroleum products which have been moved down 5.8 per cent for the month of September owing to decline in prices in the international market.
As per a statement, the purchasing price of petrol had been reduced by Rs4.59 per litre to Rs113.24 per litre to be effective from Sept 1 from Rs117.83 per litre, in the previous month.
Resultantly, the price of high speed diesel (HSD) had dipped by Rs5.33 per litre to Rs127.14 per litre from Rs132.47 previously.
Similarly, the government had reduced the price of kerosene by Rs4.27 per litre to Rs99.57 per litre from Rs103.84 per litre, while in the case of LDO the reduction was of Rs5.63 per litre to Rs91.89 from Rs97.52 per litre.
