Pakistan: PSO profit up 3.8 per cent

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) topline has grown to Rs930 billion during first nine months of the current financial year from Rs862 billion for the corresponding period last year, registering growth of 7.8 per cent.

For the period under review, profit after tax also witnessed significant improvement and increased to Rs9.31 billion as compared to Rs8.97 billion for the corresponding period last year, representing an increase of 3.8 per cent.

During this time period, industry volumes for black oil remained stable while white oil grew by one per cent reflecting an increase in Mogas consumption of 16 per cent.

PSO's share of the MOGAS segment also grew to about 51 per cent as compared to 49.6 per cent while the HSD market share increased to 57.6 per cent from 54.8 per cent last year.

PSO continued to hold onto the lion’s share of the market with its share in the white oil segment growing to 56.0 per cent of the overall market while its share in the black oil segment stood at 74.7 per cent, thereby contributing to a total market share of 64.3 per cent.

In April this year PSO has taken further steps along the path of becoming an integrated energy company and building a self-reliant energy chain by signing various strategic agreements.

PSO signed an MoU has been with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for establishing of a state-of-the-art oil refinery with a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day in District Kohat  of the province.

It also signed another MoU with Engro PowerGen Limited (EPL) to review the technical and economical feasibility of the Thar coal project.

PSO has also initiated a number of new and innovative marketing projects to project its image. With this in mind, the Company has inaugurated the first of its kind "Diesel Square" in Karachi and plans to replicate this project in different cities nationwide.

Another first for PSO has been the inauguration of the world's first "Community Owned Station" in Gujrat which shall help bring about a social revolution at a grass roots level by distributing the station's profit amongst local area stakeholders.