KARACHI: Cynergico Pk Limited, a Pakistani petroleum company, plans to modernize its refinery to produce Euro-V compliant fuels, a senior Cynergico official said on Monday.
The current processing capacity of Cynergico stands at 156,000 barrels per day, positioning it as Pakistan’s largest oil refining company by installed capacity.
The modernization of its oil refinery could cost more than $1 billion that would boost domestic production of Euro-V standard petrol and diesel in the South Asian country.
“The investment might exceed $1 billion, but definitive figures will be available upon completion of the FEED (Front End Engineering Design) study,” Usama Qureshi, vice-chairman of Cnergyico Pk Limited, told Arab News.
Qureshi said the project will reduce production of low-value furnace oil and increase the output of petrol and diesel, thereby cutting dependency on imports of expensive refined products and resulting in significant savings of foreign exchange.
Pakistan, which has been facing a financial crunch for the last two years, is only 16.35 percent self-sufficient in oil production and meets the rest of the demand through costly imports.
In January, the Pakistani energy ministry announced that petroleum exploration and production companies in Pakistan would invest more than $33 million under recently signed petroleum concession agreements (PCAs) and exploration licenses (ELs).
PCAs and ELs have been signed for eight blocks, including Kotra East (2867-8), Murradi (2767-7), Sehwan (2667-19) and Zindan-II (3271-9) with Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Multanai (3168-3) with Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL), Sawan South (2668-26) with United Energy Pakistan Limited (UEP), Gambat-II (2668-25) with Joint Venture of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (Operator) and OGDCL, and Saruna West (2666-1) with Joint Venture of POL (Operator), PPL and OGDCL.
These companies would make investments to develop production for blocks with discoveries, besides spending a minimum of $30,000 per year on social welfare schemes in each block in their respective areas, according to the energy ministry.
