Pakistan has lifted a ban on fuel oil imports to address the problem of planned power cuts as energy consumption rises towards the summer season, an official with the petroleum ministry said late last week. The decision to lift the import ban was made April 17 during a meeting by Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Current fuel oil stocks are seen as extremely low, at 335,000 mt. Power producers would need an estimated 18,000 mt/day of high sulfur fuel oil between April and September to meet seasonally higher electricity demand, according to the Ministry of Water and Power. State-run Pakistan State Oil has already bought 420,000 mt of 180 CST HSFO with a maximum sulfur content of 3.5% for delivery over May 3-28 to Port Qasim from Bakri, Vitol and Gulf Petrochem. The last time the company bought HSFO was for December delivery, […]