Shell, Caltex, PSO to import diesel for Pakistan

Pakistan's government plans to stop managing the country's diesel imports from the second quarter of 2001 as part of the planned deregulation of the oil sector, an official at the Petroleum Ministry said yesterday. The official said diesel imports would be handled instead by state-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Shell Pakistan and Caltex Pakistan.

"PSO will handle diesel term imports, while Shell and Caltex will take care of
spot tenders," the official said. Until now, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has been responsible for all Pakistan's imports of diesel, which amount to 5.6 million tonnes a year, to meet domestic demand of seven million.

Kuwait supplies 75 per cent of the volumes through a yearly tender. The rest is supplied through quarterly import tenders issued by the ministry. The ministry has recently awarded a tender to buy 300,000 tonnes of diesel from Saudi trader Bakri for delivery in the first quarter of 2001.

"We expect that this will be the last tender we (the ministry) issue," said the official. He said from the second quarter, Shell and Caltex - Pakistan's second and third largest marketing oil firms respectively - will issue import tenders. PSO, the largest oil marketer, will handle the Kuwaiti term diesel import contract.

State media in August said Petroleum Minister Usman Aminuddin wanted diesel
imports deregulated by December. But a senior government official said in October that plans to free gas oil imports from government control were delayed by several issues under discussion with the industry. The government in July deregulated fuel oil imports, which are now mainly undertaken by PSO.