ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) have agreed for Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) and Fuel Transportation Agreement (FTA) on Wednesday.
The consensus was developed during a meeting between Minister PRs Kh. Saad Rafique and Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources (P&NR) Arshad Mirza on Wednesday during which both parties exchanged the drafts of these two agreements.
PRs transports fuel from PSO to power plants, which has boosted its earnings. Now Pakistan Railways will also be used to supply oil from PSO to Jamshoro Power Plant. In view of reducing the dependency on road transportation by shifting transportation volumes to other cost effective and environmental friendly modes, HSD transportation to Jamshoro power plant through tank wagons will also start after negotiations with PR.
PRs was facing the issue of unloading of furnace oil from PSO and Ministry Of Water and Power. Actually oil was not unloaded due to less demand at Lal Peer Power Plant (Mehmoodkot) and Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Plant.
Thus railway tank wagons were used as store for PSO oil. But now a settlement has been made between all three parties –PR, PSO and Water and Power –that if oil will not be unloaded, then both parties will pay legitimate fare to PR.
And there must be accurate forecast of supply and demand of oil used in these power plants.
The oil transportation of PSO through PRs has increased from 4% to 38% in three years. In the past, the percentage of oil hauling of PSO through railways was only 4%, which has now improved due to determined efforts of the Pakistan Railways.
The increase is around 10 times more and efforts are underway to further enhance the transportation of oil.
