Is Cheaper But Illegal Iranian Oil The Solution? By Fakiha Iqbal Shah On May 7, 2023 https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/is-cheaper-but-illegal-iranian-oil-the-solution/

Petroleum Sales Plunge By 46% As Inflation Bites By Omar Faruq On May 8, 2023 https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/petroleum-sales-plunge-by-46-as-inflation-bites/
Smuggled Iranian Diesel – Pakistan Losing Billions Per Month By Omar Faruq On May 8, 2023 https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/smuggled-iranian-diesel-pakistan-losing-billions-per-month/
Little thought or research seems to have been put behind these articles. On the one hand the major autoblogs have been publishing articles that government doesn’t have the $$$ so import L/Cs aren’t being allowed to PAMA and PAAPAM. Do you think they have the $$$ to allow oil refineries to import crude? Do they have the $$$ to allow oil marketing companies to import finished goods?
The cross-border influx from Iran is what is keeping the wheel turning. Not only that, the Irani fuel is latest Euro6 quality which means lower emissions and better health for Pakistanis compared to the local refineries which are still producing MMT-laden toxic fuels and 500 ppm high-sulphur diesel. (Well PakWheels staff should know better about air quality since their office is in Lahore – it isn’t easy to breathe in Lahore due to the air pollution – I don’t want to imagine the paradox of people be huggin’ their inhaler tight and supporting high-toxicity fuel over low-toxicity fuel).

Just like the unpatriotic automakers which didn’t localize and caused harm to the treasury, the fuelmakers are also sowing what they reaped. It is by now a known truth the Euro5 petrol consumption is lower. They could have intro’ed Euro5 fuels a long time ago to help enable reduction in total fuel import bill of Pakistan. However they are such laggards that they in 2016 they began producing that lethal Euro2 fuel more than a few years after the government’s deadline (govt. initiated it in 2009 and the deadline was 2012). Before that they were producing fuel even more poisonous than Euro2. Now that the deadline of Euro5 has passed since 1st July 2020, there is no Euro5 fuel in sight from these refineries (except maybe NRL which announced it is giving out Euro5 diesel but Euro2 petrol).

Iran has been a fuel-supplier to the subcontinent since long before Middle East had any oil discovery. If the fuel is coming from Iran, it is nothing new, centuries of history is repeating itself.

Now the reps of Attock and PARCO have the audacity to play victim. Similar to the auto industry which is still in its infancy since 30+ years and need support from the government to hold it up through taxes, bans, subsidies and anti-competitive measures, so is the fuel industry which always blackmails the government at any given chance and is still on stilts. Newsflash for the misters and missuses, if their factory was so supporting the Pakistani economy and a source of revenue rather than a drain on the resources, the government would already have had exceptions for it.