CNG sale down, petrol's up

KARACHI - The sale of Compressed Natural Gas has declined by 12 to 14 per cent during the last three weeks while the petrol sale surged by 26 per cent during 2009-10. According to the chairman of the CNG Station Owners Association Malik Khuda Bakhsh, due to the four days gas loadshedding the sale of CNG is declining and affecting the profitability of the station owners that are bearing the overhead cost without any income, generating loss of millions. He said that the average sale of an ordinary CNG station is about Rs 75,000 to 80,000 per day and the loadshedding is upsetting the budget of the owners. On the other hand according to the Oil Companies Advisory Committee data the country imported 106,279 tons of petrol in May 2010, while total imports from December 2008 to May 2010 were 804,992 tons that indicates towards the huge imports of petrol due to the high demand in the local market as 55 percent of the total consumption is being consumed by the two wheeler. The official spokes person of the Pak-Suzuki Sahfique Ahmed Shaikh told TheNation that due to the decline in petrol prices and the natural gas loadshedding the people prefer the petrol based vehicles. He said that the co produced 7,000 units per month in which 65pc were CNG-fitted vehicles and the rest petrol version. This percentage had been static for the last two years. In case, he said, petrol becomes cheaper by Rs4-5 per litre, the orders from customers for petrol vehicles go up by at least 5pc. A CNG kit producer said that the CNG conversion rate had slowed down to 5,000-6,000 vehicles per month as compared to 8,000 units a few months back due to declining petrol prices amid reports that CNG would become costlier in the current month.