What makes up the petrol price in Pakistan?

Petrol’s price pays for 3 things: the fuel, getting it to the pump, and the Government. On 1 September 2026 the total was Rs 342.79.

Diesel cost Rs 370.41 that day. Both come from a sheet the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) publishes, called the build-up.

The build-up names every rupee in the price. In this note I read the 1 September 2026 sheet, one part at a time.

For the latest figures, open the live build-up. For the figures used here, open the day record.

Where does each rupee of a litre go?

Each column adds up exactly to the printed pump price. That holds when the lines are added before they are rounded for display.

The 4 row names are my labels, to make the sheet easier to read. The figures inside them are OGRA’s own printed lines.

On the site, the first 2 rows form 1 group, “The fuel, shipped to Pakistan”. The others are “Getting it to the pump” and “Government”.

The table also shows something the pump price cannot. Diesel’s fuel cost is lower than petrol’s, but getting it to Pakistan costs much more.

Most of that gap is the refining margin (OGRA’s table calls it the “HSD crack”). It was Rs 73.16 a litre on the diesel sheet.

The refining margin is the gap between the world price of diesel and the price of the crude oil it is made from.

So 1 world oil price cannot tell you which fuel costs more at the pump.

How much is the fuel itself?

This is the world price of the fuel, turned into rupees per litre. For petrol, OGRA’s sheet starts from a price for finished petrol.

For diesel, the sheet in use since 20 August 2026 starts from a crude oil price. It shows the refining margin as a separate line.

So the 2 starting figures are not the same stage of supply. Petrol’s is a finished fuel; diesel’s is crude oil before refining.

They are still the closest published starting points. I keep them under 1 plain label so the 4 parts add up to the litre.

The diesel restructure records exactly what changed on that date, and why the series breaks there.

What does it cost to get the fuel to Pakistan?

This group holds the costs between the world price and the price at Karachi port. The lines depend on the fuel and the sheet.

They can include:

• premium and freight, or crude premium and freight and insurance;
• the diesel refining margin;
• incidentals and ocean loss or gain;
• exchange-rate adjustment; and
• the tiny rounding difference needed to keep OGRA’s printed subtotals.

OGRA turns the dollar price into rupees per litre. It uses the exchange rate and its conversion factor, the number of litres in a barrel.

So a fall in the world price may not reach the pump in full. Freight, the refining margin or the rupee can rise instead.

What does it cost to get the fuel to the pump?

3 published lines make up this part:

On 1 September they add up to Rs 25.30 for petrol and Rs 21.81 for diesel.

IFEM is the line that differs most between the 2 fuels. The oil company and dealer margins are the same on this sheet.

What does the Government take from a litre?

The Government’s part has 4 lines: customs duty, the Petroleum Levy, the Climate Support Levy and sales tax. On the 1 September sheet:

Sales tax shows as zero because OGRA prints the line with a zero on it. That is different from a line missing from the sheet.

Why does the pump price change?

The change in the pump price is the net change across every published line. One line can rise while another falls.

A levy can stay fixed while the world price or the exchange rate moves. The margins can stay the same while IFEM changes.

So “did crude oil rise?” is not enough. The better question is which lines moved, and by how much in total?

The date comparison answers that for any 2 published days.

The history shows the changes over a week, a month or a period you choose. It skips dates when OGRA published no build-up.

Where do these figures come from?

The example is read from OGRA price publication 15795, effective 1 September 2026.

I keep the exact PDF downloaded from OGRA. Its SHA-256, a fingerprint of the file, is:

134a8ef69398c38ab06bed858159e2f8259fb825d00299fbf1dfb4a47ea41171

The record never estimates a missing line, fills a gap, or puts a market price where OGRA printed none.

It reads the printed figures and checks the subtotals and the total. If the sums do not match, it holds that day back.

The full rules are in How this record is read.