Attock Refinery temporarily shuts down main distillation unit

Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL), a subsidiary of The Attock Oil Company Limited, on Tuesday said it has shut down one of its main distillation units on a temporary basis amid low demand for Furnace Fuel Oil (FFO).

ATRL becomes the second major refinery in the country to either shut or limit its operations in recent days. Last week, Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) announced to shut down its operations from December 10 for approximately 20 days.

In its filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), ATRL said: “Due to ullage constraints resulting from low demand for FFO, ATRL is temporarily shutting down its main distillation unit for approximately eight days”.

“Consequently, as a result of this shut down refinery will be operating at a capacity of 35%."

Facing massive economic headwinds, companies in Pakistan struggle to keep operations going

It added that adequate inventories of products are available to meet current requirements, and "this has been intimated to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) and Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) accordingly."

The company also said that some necessary maintenance jobs would be carried out during the shutdown period.

Last month, Business Recorder reported that ATRL was likely to stop operations due to higher stocks of Furnace Fuel Oil (FFO) as the refinery was operating on 60% capacity, which may also hit supply of J-1 to Islamabad Airport and JP-8 to Pakistan Air Force.

The main reason for the higher stocks of furnace oil is that the country’s electricity requirement is about 12,000-MW due to which the government is not allowing operations of furnace oil-fired power plants, the report said.

Incorporated in Pakistan on November 8, 1978 as a private limited company, ATRL was later converted into a public company on June 26, 1979.

ATRL is principally engaged in the refining of crude oil. The company is subsidiary of The Attock Oil Company Limited, England and its ultimate parent is Coral Holding Limited (a private limited company incorporated in Malta).