KARACHI (February 04 2003) : The oil marketing companies have raised the price of fuel oil by 8.7 percent in response to rising crude oil prices.
Pakistan State Oil Ltd raised its fuel oil price by 8.7 percent to Rs 13,636 a tonne, while Shell Pakistan Ltd, raised its fuel oil price by 8.6 percent to Rs 13,782 a tonne.
The raise in price is expected to boost the cost of companies using fuel oil as a raw material to either ran their power plants or other entities belonging to textile, sugar and cement sectors.
The price of crude oil has risen nearly 36 percent on concern a possible US-led attack on Iraq will disrupt shipments from the Middle East, which pumps a quarter of the world's oil.
The country imports about 85 percent of the total fuel its uses each year.
In the six months ended December, imports of crude oil and oil products rose 8 percent to $1.455 billion from $1.347 billion in the same period last year.
