Oil sales hit nine-month high of 1.4m tonnes

The country’s overall oil sales clocked in at 1.39 million tonnes in May, the highest in nine months, showing a jump of 7 per cent year-on-year and 26pc month-on-month, led by an annual increase of 18pc in diesel sales. However, oil sales during the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year remained at 13.83m tonnes, down 9pc from the same period a year ago. Amid serious concerns by refinery operators and oil marketing companies (OMCs) over a negative impact on their sales due to the rising influx of smuggled Iranian oil products, diesel sales rose significantly by 18pc to 643,000 tonnes due to harvesting season and a drop in prices by Rs16.3 per litre in May. Myesha Sohail of Topline Securities believed that a “crackdown on smuggling of petroleum products has also resulted in somewhat recovery of diesel sales as per channel checks”.