Attock Refinery shuts down main crude distillation unit till June 1

Pakistan's Attock Refinery, which has the capacity to produce 53,000 barrels per day (bpd), has decided to shut down its main crude distillation unit till June 1.

In a filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the refiner said the unit — which has a capacity of 32,400 bpd — was shut down due to very low crude stocks.

“Owing to imported LNG, there has been persistent high Sui Northern Gas Pipelines system pressure, resulting in forced curtailment of gas production from local oilfields,” the filing said.

This has also resulted in reduction of crude oil production and supplies to Attock Refinery from the oil fields, the filing added.

Last month, Attock Refinery wrote a letter to Pakistan's Ministry of Energy stating that crude oil production from the northern oilfields in the country has reduced significantly, reaching a level of 39,000 bpd, forcing Attock to operate its refinery at lower throughput against installed capacity of 53,400 bpd.

The letter, a copy of which was seen by Nukta, stated that forced gas curtailment by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines to accommodate imported LNG, and disruption in supplies from northern fields due to frequent strikes and the law and order situation curtailed the supplies to 33,000 bpd.

The government has allocated 5,000 bpd of crude oil from southern fields but freight charges have not been approved yet which would be tabled soon in a meeting, said industry sources.

In this scenario, the throughput needs to be maintained lower than current receipts to absorb the daily variations in crude receipts for smooth plant operations and avoid any sudden shutdowns due to unavailability of required volumes of crude oil, the letter said.

Earlier, Pakistan decided to divert six cargoes of LNG — one every month for the period from July to December — because of declining demand amid slump in economic activities.

In January, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines asked the government to defer 11 cargoes from February because of lower demand for gas from industries. So far, five have been deferred and now plans are underway to defer six more.