ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Pakistan’s oil reserves have plummeted to the lowest-ever level in the country’s history and the stocks of major oil products — kerosene and diesel — are sufficient for six days only.

Under the standard operating procedures (SOPs), the government and its companies are required to maintain a minimum of 21-day stocks of every product at all times to cope with any eventuality. The SOPs are defined in the ‘Blue Book’ meant for strategic government organisations to handle crises.

Informed sources told Dawn that the situation had not aggravated in a day or two. The ministry of petroleum had been informing the government about the situation consistently since late October.

Despite repeated attempts, Petroleum Secretary Farrukh Qayyum and additional secretary Shaukat Hayat Durrani could not be reached for comment.

However, according to petroleum experts, there will be no immediate impact of the depletion on the common man. But the situation can lead to a crisis in future and should be handled with extreme care, they added. Statistics confirmed by sources in the petroleum ministry and oil industry reveal that total kerosene stocks at present stood at less than 3,800 tons, sufficient only for four days.

Pakistan’s current kerosene requirement is 920 tons per day. The country has total kerosene storage capacity for 80 days and the current storage is about nine per cent of the total capacity.

Likewise, current high speed diesel stocks are at around 125,457 tons, which can meet consumption requirement of six days at the average need of about 22,000 tons per day. The country has the capacity to store HSD to the extent of 39 days of requirement. As such, total usable stocks are about 19 per cent of the available capacity.

Light diesel oil, comparatively a low-consumption product, has a stock of about 2,500 tons that is enough for four days, at the rate of 558 tons per day, which is 14 per cent of its total storage capacity of about 42 days of consumption.

The situation is comparatively better for furnace oil, petrol, HOBC and jet fuel as their stocks were enough for 26 days, 15 days, 22 days and 20 days, respectively, are much lower than last year.

The country has storage capacity of these products for 75 days, 33 days, 131 days and 34 days, respectively. This means that only 39 per cent, 49 per cent, 21 per cent and 49 per cent of storage capacity is being utilised at the moment.

The sources said the major reason for the drop in stocks was cash problems faced by the oil companies to have sufficient imports and non-availability of cargo in Arab countries because of advance supply orders.

Secondly, some of the refineries have increased their jet fuel production that directly affects kerosene production because both are alternative products.

The punchline, however, is that kerosene is a subsidised product that affects oil companies’ cash flow in the wake of price differential claim while jet fuel is a cash product and attracts payments in dollars it is sold to allied forces engaged in the “war on terror”.

With no real increase in domestic consumption, Pakistan’s oil import bill was estimated at $8.8 billion when the budget was announced, but this figure was likely to exceed $10 billion, the sources said.

The government had estimated that crude price would not exceed 70 dollars per barrel, but it went up as high as 98 dollars per barrel.

Diesel is usually described as ‘killer fuel’ because of its harmful impact on the environment. About 7.5 million tons of diesel was consumed in the country, as against a total oil consumption of 17.5 million tons. Furnace oil has the second largest share and remains in the range of 5-7 million tons depending upon power production requirements.