Attock Refinery is ready to shut down its operations in one week due to slump in demand.
The refinery is operating its 54,000 barrels per day plant at 29 per cent capacity. It would be the third refinery in Pakistan to suspend operations.
“The main plant is shut down. Only two small units are running and these will be closed in the next few days if the situation persists,” said Adil Khattak, chief executive officer at Attock Refinery.
The fuel retailers and refiners were asked by the energy ministry to cancel the import of products and crude from April and oil marketing companies were asked that supply fuel stations should increase purchases from national refiners to ensure that operations continue.
However, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd halted crude processing at its 155,000 bpd refinery because of “zero demand for products in the aftermath of Covid-19 lockdowns,” Shahryar Ahmad, its head of communications, said.
Byco put the refinery on cold circulation, which means crude is passed through the machinery without producing any refined products as fired heaters are shut.
The process would help in quick restart of the refinery in case demand recovers, Byco said in a statement.
The National Refinery Ltd also stopped crude processing at its 64,000 bpd plant from last Wednesday.
