An exclusive interview with Usama Qureshi, Vice Chairman, Cnergyico
Profile
Usama Qureshi has built a career on turnarounds. At K-Electric, as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff, he was part of the leadership team behind the utility’s turnaround, a story later taught at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. As Managing Director and CEO of Hamdard Laboratories Pakistan, he led the modernisation of a Pakistani household name. He began his career at Pakistan State Oil, on the team that revived its fuel cards business.
Since joining Cnergyico in 2021, he has brought the same instinct to a business operating at national scale. He shapes long-term strategy, strengthens governance and makes the Company’s case to government, regulators and international partners. He also sits on the boards of the Company’s subsidiaries. Twenty five years across energy, FMCG, fintech and telecommunications give him an unusually wide lens. He is Chief Executive Officer of Amps & Volts (formerly Oasis Energy), an electrical switchgear and power solutions manufacturer. He is also Strategic Advisor to Kuickpay, a payments aggregation platform.
Beyond the boardroom, he is one of the sector’s most visible voices, writing and speaking on Pakistan’s energy future and economic policy. He serves on the Global Advisory Council of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), which Cnergyico has joined as a Strategic Partner. He also champions Pakistan’s trade and exports through the FPCCI and national business councils. He holds an MBA.
PAGE: Please tell us briefly about Cnergyico, from an oil refinery to an important component of Pakistan’s emerging energy infrastructure.
Usama Qureshi: Cnergyico has evolved from a refining business into a vertically integrated energy company spanning refining, petroleum marketing, storage, logistics and distribution.
Today we operate Pakistan’s largest oil refining complex by installed capacity at 156,000 barrels per day. Our infrastructure includes the country’s first and only Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), substantial crude oil storage and a nationwide network of more than 480 Byco retail outlets.
This integrated model lets us participate across the value chain, from crude imports and refining to storage, distribution and marketing. Our objective is to strengthen energy security, diversify crude supply, improve product quality and progressively modernize our infrastructure.
PAGE: The company enjoys a few distinctions, including the largest refining capacity of 156,000 barrels per day. What has been the average capacity utilization and what is being done to improve it?
Usama Qureshi: Average utilization has been around 35% or about 55,000 barrels per day. This reflects market demand and refining margins rather than any technical constraint. During the recent crisis we raised throughput to more than 80,000 barrels per day.
Our approach is to operate at levels that deliver the optimal product yield and economic return rather than maximize throughput regardless of market conditions. To raise utilization on a sustainable basis we are diversifying crude supply, securing better commercial terms, developing product exports through a second SBM and completing our refinery modernization program.
PAGE: The company processes crude from different regions and has recently imported West African and American crude. How has the experience been?
Usama Qureshi: The flexibility of our refining configuration allows us to process crude from diverse sources. West African grades demonstrated our ability to handle crudes of different characteristics while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) from the United States broadened Pakistan’s supply options beyond its traditional dependence on the Middle East.
We assess each crude on landed cost, freight, product yields, refinery compatibility, financing terms and reliability of supply. The experience has reinforced our view that diversification is strategically valuable. It has served both the refinery and the country well during periods of supply disruption.
PAGE: Another unique feature is the Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facility. How has this contributed to achieving higher synergy?
Usama Qureshi: The SBM is one of our most important strategic assets. It can receive fully laden Suezmax and Aframax vessels that cannot berth fully laden at Karachi Port or Port Qasim. It is connected to our storage and refining complex through approximately 11.5 kilometres of subsea and 3.3 kilometres of onshore pipeline.
This reduces dependence on conventional port infrastructure, enables larger cargoes and lowers logistics complexity. It was particularly valuable for our WTI and West African cargoes, where larger shipments on longer voyages lower the freight cost per barrel. It also strengthens national energy security.
PAGE: Cnergyico owns and operates retail outlets and also supplies products to other OMCs. How does this help in achieving higher standards of finished products?
Usama Qureshi: Our integrated model keeps us connected with the product from crude selection to the retail customer. Running our own retail network while supplying other oil marketing companies gives us direct exposure to customer expectations.
Quality is maintained through established specifications and testing procedures at the refinery and across the supply chain. Integration also gives us direct feedback on product performance. As we modernize, our objective is to produce cleaner, higher-value fuels meeting Euro-V specifications while maintaining quality through storage, transportation and delivery.
PAGE: Some analysts believe Cnergyico’s location is a bottleneck because transportation by bowsers is expensive and problematic during the monsoon season. How has the experience been?
Usama Qureshi: Every industrial location presents both advantages and challenges. Hub’s coastal location and direct integration with our SBM, storage and refining complex are major strategic advantages.
Inland movement of products by road tankers does involve cost and can face temporary disruption during extreme weather. These challenges are not unique to Cnergyico and form part of Pakistan’s broader logistics environment. Our storage network and supply chain planning help mitigate these risks. Any assessment of our location must also account for direct offshore crude handling, access to large cargoes and extensive on-site storage.
PAGE: How does the proposed modernization program help in improving the quality of products?
Qureshi: The refinery modernization program is fundamental to our long-term strategy. In September we signed the upgrade agreement with the Government under the refining policy for a project involving an investment of more than US$1 billion.
The upgrade will materially change our product slate, increasing production of High-Speed Diesel and Motor Gasoline while significantly reducing Furnace Oil. Most importantly, our products will meet Euro-V specifications for substantially cleaner fuels. It will also improve refinery economics and reduce Pakistan’s dependence on imported fuels.
We are also planning a second SBM for product exports. This will improve refinery utilization, reduce our dependence on the local market alone and generate much-needed foreign exchange for the country.
PAGE: How did Cnergyico respond to the recent disruption in Gulf oil supplies and what role did it play in keeping the country supplied?
Usama Qureshi: The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year was one of the most serious energy security tests Pakistan has faced. Around 90 percent of the country’s oil and LNG imports passed through Hormuz, so when imported products became difficult to secure, domestic refining became the country’s first line of supply. We responded on three fronts.
First, we raised refinery throughput to more than 80,000 barrels per day when imported products were scarce.
Second, because our crude sourcing was already diversified, we continued processing crude from outside the Gulf.
Third, our SBM received these large cargoes directly at Hub without adding to congestion at Karachi’s ports, while our storage capacity and Byco network kept products moving across the country.
The crisis demonstrated why domestic refining capacity, diverse crude sources and independent offshore import infrastructure matter for national energy security. It has also strengthened the case for our refinery upgrade and a second SBM.
PAGE: Cnergyico has returned to profitability after a difficult period. What drove this turnaround?
Usama Qureshi: The last few years were challenging for the entire refining sector. High finance costs, limited working capital, weak local demand and smuggled products all weighed on refinery economics. The company recorded a loss in FY2025.
For the year ended June 30, 2026, Cnergyico reported a profit after tax of PKR10.75 billion compared with a loss of PKR2.90 billion the previous year. Sales rose to PKR410.2 billion from PKR296.7 billion and earnings per share were PKR1.96 against a loss per share of PKR0.53.
We diversified our crude sourcing and became the first refinery in Pakistan to process US crude, which improved product yields and operational flexibility. We also operated with tighter cost discipline and expanded product exports. Stronger refining margins during the crisis helped but the groundwork for the recovery had been laid well before it. Our focus now is to make this recovery sustainable through the upgrade program, higher utilization and a stronger export business.
PAGE: Cnergyico’s refinery is located away from the city in Balochistan. How does the company engage with the communities around it?
Usama Qureshi: For us, CSR is not a set of one-off events. Our refinery has been part of this community for more than three decades and its progress is tied to ours. We focus on the five villages closest to our operations, work through established partners and sustain our programs year after year.
Education, with a focus on women:
With The Citizens Foundation (TCF), we support government primary schools in the area and provide transport so children can reach school safely. We sponsor female teachers at a girls’ school in Gaddani and support young women from Mouza Kund training as midwives.
Health and clean water:
Our ambulance service connects the surrounding villages to hospitals in Hub and Karachi. We have also provided equipment to LRBT’s Secondary Eye Hospital in Quetta. Our seven solar-powered reverse osmosis (RO) plants supply safe drinking water to five villages.
Livelihoods and dignity:
With Akhuwat, we support interest-free microfinance for families in Hub. With Bioniks Welfare Organization, we provide prosthetic limbs to people who could not otherwise afford them. The refinery itself supports more than 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in the area, our largest contribution to the local economy.
Environment:
A coral reef has developed along our subsea pipeline between the SBM and the refinery, a rare marine habitat in Pakistani waters that we continue to support. Our biggest environmental contribution, however, will come from the refinery upgrade, which will produce Euro-V fuels with substantially lower sulphur content. As it progresses, our footprint in the region will grow through more jobs, local procurement and cleaner fuels. Our community programs will grow alongside it.