Weekly oil pricing mechanism to stay

At a hurriedly called meeting, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Shaikh told CEOs of several OMCs and refineries that there would be no further changes to the weekly pricing mechanism in the near future. They added that upcoming petrol pricing would be based on a $15.85 per barrel import premium of the latest cargo arranged by state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO), which suffered the most under recent pricing changes. Diesel pricing would continue to be benchmarked on PSO’s import premium from Kuwait Petroleum — around $5-6 per barrel, an official told Dawn. Asif Iqbal, chairman of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), an umbrella body of over three dozen companies, complained to the government side that frequent changes to the pricing formula — seven times for diesel and four times for petrol in the past three months — had shattered the oil industry. He said the latest price change had wiped out the profitability of the past year in a single day, warning that foreign investment could not be expected under such conditions, according to official sources. Cynergico Petroleum’s Amir Abbassciy said refineries were bearing the brunt due to abundant availability of smuggled high-speed diesel (HSD) in the market and demanded complete deregulation of pricing along with effective action against smuggling. He supported OCAC’s view that further foreign investment in the sector would be difficult. Wafi Energy CEO Zubair Shaikh said his UAE-based principals were shocked to learn that their subsidiar