Weekly oil pricing mechanism to stay

Wire excerpt

• Oil firms assured of import premium-based pricing to minimise losses • OMCs warn repeated revisions discouraging foreign investment ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Energy on Tuesday assured angered executives of oil-marketing companies (OMCs) and refineries that upcoming price adjustments would be based on actual import premiums, while the weekly pricing mechanism would continue to minimise losses caused by recent policy changes. At a hurriedly called meeting, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Shaikh told CEOs of several OMCs and refineries that there would be no further changes to the weekly pricing mechanism in the near future. They added that upcoming petrol pricing would be based on a $15.85 per barrel import premium of the latest cargo arranged by state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO), which suffered the most under recent pricing changes. Diesel pricing would continue to be benchmarked on PSO’s import premium from Kuwait Petroleum — around $5-6 per barrel, an official told Dawn. Asif Iqbal, chairman of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), an umbrella body of over three dozen companies, complained to the government side…