KARACHI - Pakistan grapples with a significant setback in its energy sector as furnace oil sales plummet by 61% in the first half of the current financial year, according to The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) statistics. The country’s sales from July to December 2023 amounted to 0.56 million tonnes, a stark contrast to the 1.45 million tonnes recorded in the same period the previous year.
December 2023 witnessed a 4 percent decline in furnace oil sales compared to November, marking a persistent downward trend. Notably, December 2023 showed a 36 percent reduction in sales compared to the same month in 2022, indicating ongoing challenges in the energy market. The broader petroleum product sector is also affected, experiencing a 15% year-on-year decrease in sales during the first half of the current financial year.