ISLAMABAD: The Federal Minister for Energy, Hammad Azhar, on Sunday clarified some ‘misconceptions’ about availability and consumption of furnace oil, saying it was ‘well stocked’ to meet the winter energy needs of the country.

In a series of tweets, he said that in summers, Pakistan faced a moderate shortage of furnace oil as the furnace oil-based power plants ran more than last year – as per merit order – due to low water levels in dams.

He said that the furnace oil consumption was 116% higher, adding “now the FO plants are running because of lowering flows from dams (canals closure) and in a couple of days will be consuming 13,000 tons per day of furnace oil”.

“The country was well stocked on furnace oil in case of further LNG [liquefied natural gas] defaults,” he added.

He said that a new refinery policy is being finalized to shift refineries away from the production of furnace oil.

On Friday, Hammad stated that the gas reserves in Pakistan were declining, but the government was making efforts to meet the shortfall of gas.

We can supply only as much as coming out of the ground, he said, adding that Pakistan’s gas reserves were declining by nine per cent on an annual basis.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021