KARAHCI, June 19: A local refinery is planning to install around 100 petrol pumps in the next two years, of which 30-40 outlets will be opened this year. Bosicor Pakistan Limited (BPL) has already acquired the marketing licence to sell petroleum products. It has set up an office in Islamabad to exclusively deal with the private parties interested in opening pumps.
A senior executive at BPL, who asked not to be named, told Dawn on Monday that initially Rs300 million had been earmarked for opening retail outlets.
He said the refinery might open very few pumps on its own ownership on the pattern being followed by other oil marketing companies (OMCs), adding that majority of the pumps would be run through private partnership. He pointed out that initially the outlets would be opened in northern and rural areas.
Some marketing companies (other than Pakistan State Oil, Shell Pakistan and Caltex) are approaching Bosicor to reach a deal for running pumps on partnership basis on the pattern of Total and Pak Arab Refinery Limited. He said some 25-30 parties had been given NOC by BPL, adding that the pumps would also have CNG facilities.
Bosicor has also planned to increase its refining capacity to 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day by the second quarter of coming year from the existing 18,000 bpd, the executive says.
The refinery has planned to install a floating jetty near the coastal line of Balochistan which will help the company in bringing bigger vessels of up to 120,000 tons capacity to reduce ocean freight and save transportation cost and losses during transit. In line with the floating jetty, it also plans to build 11 storage tanks in the next 10 months to cover storage capacity at the site.
At present there are over 5,500 petrol pumps running in the country in which Pakistan State Oil has around 3,500 outlets, while Shell Pakistan Limited has over 1,200 pumps, followed by 130 of Total, around 100 of Caltex, etc.
CNG and Petroleum Dealers Association Chairman Abdul Sami Khan said the government had reduced the number of departments issuing NOCs from 16 to only five departments in the budget 2006-07 for installing CNG station. However, he said unfortunately dealers in Karachi were facing many hurdles and difficulties in establishing new CNG stations.