The petroleum sales in Pakistan increased significantly in July 2026, with the increase in petroleum sales of Pakistan being reported at 23% year-on-year, totaling 1.51 million tons. The increase is attributed to various reasons such as reduced fuel costs and gradual economic improvement in various industries, according to the report published by Arif Habib Limited (AHL).

What Drove the Pakistan petroleum sales Surge

As far as AHL is concerned, the rise in oil sales in Pakistan can be largely explained by reduced costs of fuels, better farm economics, increased agriculture activities, and an improvement in the economy and automotive industry demand. "The YoY growth in volume was mainly due to lower fuel prices, better farm economics, higher agriculture activities, and gradual improvement in economy and auto industry demand," said AHL in its report.

Aside from FO, OMCs' sales grew by 18.5% YoY, which is the best performance seen in the month of July since July 2021. It is indeed a testament to just how impressive the present recovery has been amid the economic challenges that the country's fuel industry has had to contend with.

The figures for high speed diesel (HSD) witnessed an increase of 19% year-on-year (YoY) and stood at 0.62 million tons due to an increase in demand for transport and agricultural equipment. The figures for motor spirit (MS), popularly known as petrol, also saw an increase of 23% YoY and stood at 0.73 million tons.

However, furnace oil experienced an even greater increase in sales, recording a 406% YoY gain to reach 0.08 million tons. According to AHL, this was due largely to increased use of furnace oil for the generation of power.

Sales of petroleum products witnessed a 20% increase on a month-on-month basis owing to decreased prices of domestic petroleum products owing to the drop in international oil prices. Sales of MS grew by 12% on a month-on-month basis, while sales of HSD increased by 25%. The growth in FO sales witnessed a 89% increase on a month-on-month basis due to the increased demand for electricity during summers.

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Oil marketing companies saw impressive growth from PSO which was way above industry levels, where sales increased 38% year-on-year (YoY) to 702,000 tons. Growth was driven by a 44.1% growth in MS volumes and 40.3% growth in HSD volumes to make PSO the outperformer in this month's growth in Pakistan petroleum sales.

AHL highlighted that PSO managed to take away the market share from Gas & Oil Pakistan (GO) in the month under review. The market share of GO in MS dropped to 5%, which is the lowest share since June 2024, and in HSD, it went down to 7%, which is the lowest market share since May 2024.

In a separate statement, AHL indicated that the government had collected about Rs134 billion as PDL in the month of July, ensuring that its collections have been largely on track towards realizing the set target of Rs1.68 trillion for FY27. The target implies an increase of 11.9% from the revised target set for FY26.