Pakistan fuel sales fall 7% in April as petrol, diesel prices surge

Pakistan petroleum product sales fell 7% year-on-year in April 2026, dropping to 1.36 million tons from 1.45 million tons in the same month last year, according to data from the Oil Companies Advisory Council received on May 4.

The decline was driven by sharp increases in petrol and diesel prices following the escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict and its impact on global crude markets.

Why did Pakistan fuel sales fall in April 2026?

Pakistan fuel sales declined because petrol and diesel prices rose sharply in April, reducing consumer demand. Petrol prices averaged PKR 375 per liter in April, up 21% from PKR 310 per liter in March.

High-Speed diesel prices rose 26% to an average of PKR 410 per liter from PKR 325.21 per liter the previous month.

How did diesel and petrol volumes change in April?

Diesel sales fell 12% year-on-year to 550,000 tons in April, compared with 622,000 tons in the same month last year. Against March's 590,000 tons, the decline was 7%.

Petrol sales dropped 7% year-on-year to 615,000 tons, and fell 8% compared with March's 670,000 tons.

Myesha Sohail, research analyst at Topline Securities in Karachi, said consumption fell because of the sharp rise in global product prices triggered by the Middle East crisis.

She added that demand is expected to remain subdued in the coming month given continued elevated prices.

Fawad Bashir, head of research at KTrade Securities, said austerity measures, including reduced retail network working hours, also weighed on volumes as the government moved to manage the import bill.

How have cumulative petroleum sales performed in FY26?

Despite the April decline, overall petroleum product sales for the first 10 months of the current fiscal year rose 4% year-on-year to 13.761 million tons, compared with 13.225 million tons in the same period of the previous year.

The fiscal year began on July 1, 2025.

Earlier months of the year supported the cumulative gain before April's price-driven contraction.

Why did fuel oil sales rise sharply in April?

Fuel oil sales bucked the broader trend, rising 63% year-on-year to 137,000 tons in April and surging 56% from March's 88,000 tons. The government switched to fuel oil-run power plants to reduce lengthy load-shedding hours after constrained LNG availability disrupted gas-fired generation.

Pakistan generates around 5,000 MW of electricity from re-gasified LNG plants, but only two LNG cargoes arrived under the long-term agreement with Qatar since March, following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The government typically imports eight to ten LNG vessels per month from Qatar. To manage the shortfall, it purchased a spot cargo in the last week of April, the first such purchase since 2023. The cargo, sourced from the United States, arrived at $18.40 per mmbtu and amounted to approximately 3.2 million mmbtu, according to a Ministry of Energy official.