Production of Petroleum products rises by 25.8%: The total production of refineries and petroleum industries rose 25.8 per cent at the end of February 2018 compared to the output recorded during the same period in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The statistics showed that the production of regular grade petrol (Mogas 91) surged 52 per cent to 1.850 million barrels at the end of February 2018 from the same period a year ago. Domestic sales of Mogas 91 rose 67 per cent to 1.804 million barrels while exports reached 428,000 barrels.

On the contrary, production of Mogas 95 decreased by 27 per cent to 1.985 million barrels, as the sales for this grade of petrol fell 35 per cent to 1.687 million barrels.

Production of diesel increased 30 per cent to 4.850 million barrels in February 2018, but its domestic sales fell 3 per cent to 2.454 million barrels. Diesel exports increased by 41 per cent to 1.656 million barrels compared to the same period last year.

As for petrochemicals, the petrol production decreased by 36 per cent compared to the end of February 2017 to 24,000 metric tonnes (MT) while its exports decreased by 39 per cent to 22,000 MT.

Paraxylene production declined by 19 per cent to 83,000 MT, but its exports registered a decrease of 30 per cent to 64,000 MT.

Polypropylene production grew 23 per cent to 42,000 MT. Sales of polypropylene jumped by 197 per cent to 10,000 MT and its exports also increased 21 per cent to 35,000 MT.