Petroleum oil manufacturing and exporting countries offered free-of-cost fuel and even provided large amounts of money to the world along with free fuel, but Pakistan and various other countries failed to get any benefit from it.
Oil prices plunged to -$37 per barrel for the first time in history in the world market on Monday. Talking to a private TV channel Next Capital MD Muzammil Aslam, said, “ It was good for nothing in case of Pakistan as Islamabad failed to place any import orders for oil since its storage capacity was full across the country.”
“Pakistan has not imported a single ship of oil in the past one month following the spillover of reservoirs amid a drastic drop in demand for petroleum products, particularly since the Sindh government imposed a lockdown on March 23 to contain the spread of coronavirus,” he said.
Earlier, when oil prices plunged to $30 per barrel in March, the government mulled over putting an order for oil imports on the futures counter, but later dismissed the idea of oil hedging on fears of a further price collapse, which came true.
Eventually, the concept of having the oil price insured at about $30 a barrel was considered, suggesting that if the price went above $30, then the insurance company would be covering the difference.
In addition, after installing renewable energy RNLG-based power plants in recent years, the government stopped using furnace oil for power generation.
