ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Pakistan is bracing for a major shortage of petroleum products as the Pakistan State Oil company moves closer to a financial emergency, a source suggested.
PSO is on the verge of defaulting on its international payments as $190 million in debt is due to foreign suppliers. An official at the company told Pakistan's English-language Dawn newspaper that PSO was considering canceling a significant amount of oil imports.
"The situation is very bad," the source said. "It has never been like this."
Irfan Qureshi, the managing director at the company, in a series of "urgent letters" sent Thursday warned government ministries that the country was on the verge of a major energy crisis, the source added.
Islamabad was warned that PSO is unable to make its payments to refineries and exhausted its financing for future supplies.
The PSO source added that Pakistan was already short of diesel, furnace oil, jet fuel and gasoline.
