Byco 1st export shipment of Furnace Oil departs Karachi Port today

KARACHI: First Furnace Oil export consignment of Byco refinery has left Karachi Port today, the sources disclosed Treasure Magazine.

Byco refinery has planned to export around 25,000 tons of furnace oil.” the Petroleum Division official said. When contacted, Byco neither confirmed nor denied the development.

Pakistan is a leading oil importing country, but now it has become an exporter of furnace oil. Prominent refinery’s ship loaded with the Furnace Oil was scheduled to leave Karachi Port early in this morning.

Petroleum Marketing Business of BYCO is continuously making strategic steps which may help this company to emerge as a leader in oil marketing sector in the wake of sluggish approach of other refineries towards International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulations, industry sources said.

BYCO, Attock Refinery Ltd, National Refinery Ltd (NRL) and Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) have constituted a working group in order to negotiate with government of Pakistan and catch-up with the challenges faced by the Industry.

In addition, BYCO is also aggressive expansion in the downstream sector by enhancing storage capacity of petroleum products across the country.

The sources said that after February 28, the government will not take any responsibility for furnace oil and companies (refineries) will deal with it by themselves.

An official at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) confirmed “oil tanker Roy Maersk is currently being loaded with furnace oil.” The ship was anchored at berth Op-2 on Sunday. It was scheduled to leave the Karachi Port at 5:30 am.

It remains not known what is the export destination of the Pakistani cargo. A market source, however, said it was going to an oil-rich Middle Eastern country.

He added that the refinery was exporting the cargo through a Dutch-based international oil trading firm, which had a significant stake in a local oil marketing company and had storage operations in Pakistan.

The Petroleum Division official said late last week “refineries’ stocks were piled up to the level of 105,000 tons in December 2019, which have now been reduced to 40,000 tons due to furnace oil consumption by power producers.”

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