Tawanai

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) faces serious debt issues and the finance ministry has said that it cannot help. The National Assembly standing committee on petroleum and natural resources has resolved to take up the issue before Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Business Recorder reports that:

Cash-strapped PSO had requested for immediate arrangement of Rs 60 billion to ease its financial woes in a meeting held on Wednesday. Special Secretary, Finance, Asif Bajwa, chaired the meeting which was attended by all stakeholders.

“But Finance Ministry has agreed to release Rs 5 billion to Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), which will make payment onward to PSO,” sources said. “Now the third quarter is going to end, and the Finance Ministry will release money during the next month to bail out oil and power sectors,” sources said, and alleged that poor recoveries by Pepco were also the main reason of the circular debt. During the meeting, it was stated that Pepco had sent bills to the consumers and would make payment to PSO during next month.

Meanwhile, briefing the NA body on petroleum and natural resources, PSO Managing Director (MD) Irfan Qureshi said that PSO dues against its clients had exceeded Rs 105 billion. He said that PSO required Rs 57 billion to mature Letters of Credit (L/Cs) for oil import. “PSO may default its L/Cs by April 20 if it is not provided Rs 57 billion,” he warned.

The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) authorities informed the NA body on petroleum and natural resources that litigation issues were resulting in loss of oil and gas. “The country is losing 6000 barrels per day crude oil, 300 MMCFD natural gas and 500 tons LPG per day due to litigation,” OGDC officials said.

Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) representative said that the company was to receive Rs 35 billion from its clients on account of gas supply and refunds from FBR. The outstanding of SSGC against KESC stands at Rs 17 billion and Rs 4 billion from Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda). The gas utility is to receive Rs 10 billion on account of refund from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Energy, Oil, Pakistan Pakistan State Oil (PSO), PSO

Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the country’s leading oil marketing company, has posted Rs 5.083 billion as profit after tax in the half year period ended December 31, 2009 as compared to after tax loss of Rs 10.049 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2008.

Highlights

• Overall, the market share for PSO stood at 71.4 percent during the first half of FY10.
• Despite financial challenges and economic slow down, PSO maintained its leadership in the White and Black Oil market segments with market shares of 56.3 percent and 88.5 percent respectively.
• The reporting period witnessed the transference of 12 percent of the government of Pakistan’s shareholding to the employees of PSO.
• During the first half of FY10, the company signed a Fuel Supply Agreement with Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL), a subsidiary company of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Private) Limited (PEPCO), for exclusively fulfilling Furnace Oil and HSD requirements of all the power stations of NPGCL.

Oil, Pakistan financial results, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), PSO