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Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has purchased 1.04 million tonnes of high sulphur fuel oil(HSFO) for delivery between September and November, Reuters reports.

Pakistan's leading oil marketer is understood to have bought 16 HSFO cargoes of 65,000 tonnes from Middle East fuel oil traders FAL Oil and Bakri.

The deal price is reported to have been at higher premiums than earlier purchases. PSO paid FAL and Bakri a premium of $22-$24 per tonne to Middle East spot quotes on a cost and freight (C&F) basis, traders said.

In a previous deal, PSO was said to have paid a premium of $18-$21 per tonne to Middle East spot quotes C&F for 780,000 tonnes of HSFO for delivery between August and October 2009.

The country is currently importing an average of around 24,000 tonnes of oil per day to meet the requirements of its power plants despite the fact that around 35,000 tonnes per day is required to meet total demand.

In addition to this, oil demand from the power sector is expected to rise by almost 30 percent before the end of the year as new oil-burning facilities come onstream to meet the current electricity shortage. This is expected to push up the country's daily requirements to approximately 45,000 tonnes per day.

Speaking last month during a presentation on product supplies to the power sector, PSO Managing Director Irfan Qureshi said that of the total 1.085 million tonnes of fuel oil to be imported in August, 220,000 tonnes was for refinery production, 715,000 tonnes was the import plan for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) and 150,000 tonnes was the import plan for low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO).

Pakistan imports around 80 percent of its oil. In the July 2008-June 2009 financial year, it imported 7.8 million tonnes of crude oil and 10.6 million tonnes of petroleum products.