By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan raised retail fuel prices Saturday, lifting petrol by Rs8 a liter and high-speed diesel by Rs5.16 for the coming fortnight.
Petrol now costs Rs266.17 a liter, up from Rs258.17, while high-speed diesel increased to Rs280.86 from Rs275.7, the Petroleum Division said in a notification. The changes, based on recommendations from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, take effect March 1.
The increase will hit middle- and lower-middle-class households hardest. Petrol powers most private transport, small cars, rickshaws and two-wheelers. Diesel, used in trucks, buses, trains, tractors, tube-wells and threshers, tends to push up the cost of moving goods and produce, feeding into higher vegetable and food prices.
The hike comes as oil and gas shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been thrown into disarray. Tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses have suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the waterway after the US and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran said it had closed navigation. “Our ships will stay put for several days,” one top executive at a major trading desk told Reuters.
Satellite images from tanker trackers showed vessels piling up next to big ports such as Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, and not moving through Hormuz. Multiple vessels in the area have received VHF transmission from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that “no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz,” an official with the EU naval mission Aspides told Reuters.
The UK Navy said Iran’s orders were not legally binding and advised vessels to transit with caution. The tanker association INTERTANKO said the US Navy had warned against navigation in the area — the whole of the Gulf, Gulf of Oman, North Arabian Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz — saying it could not guarantee the safety of shipping. Greece’s shipping ministry advised vessels on Saturday to avoid the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, according to an advisory.
Some 20% of global oil from producers such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and Iran pass through Hormuz as well as large volumes of LNG from Qatar. Fourteen LNG tankers have shown signs of slowing down, U-turning or stopping in or around the Strait, said Laura Page from consultancy Kpler, who added the number will likely rise, posing risks to Qatari LNG exports.
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