Pakistan's move to take advantage of falling oil prices

• Babar said that proposals for hedging oil deals have been sent to the Finance Ministry to take advantage of falling oil prices in the global market.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Petroleum Nadeem Babar has said that Pakistan wants to make deals through hedging of its 15 to 20 percent annual oil requirement, in order to take advantage of the declining oil prices.

Talking to local media, Babar said that proposals for hedging oil deals have been sent to the Finance Ministry to take advantage of falling oil prices in the global market.

He said that a proposal has been sent to the Finance Ministry to hedge 15 to 20pc of Pakistan's annual oil requirement, which would be approved by the cabinet Economic Coordination Committee.

The international market for oil and petroleum products has been in major turmoil for the last few months. Starting from a price war led by two of the largest oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia to the collapse in demand due to Covid-19 related lockdowns around the globe, the market has seen price lows that nobody has ever expected.

It may be mentioned here that the total imports of crude is 68 million barrel per annum, that of HSD is 19 million barrels per annum, PMG 45 million barrels per annum and term of contracts of LNG is 6 million tons. This total crude, HSD, MS to approximately 175 million barrels per annum equivalent.