(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan is struggling to buy diesel due to a supply shortage with more traders targeting Europe as the loss of Russian fuel flows sets in.

Pakistan State Oil Co. hasn’t been able to secure additional shipments from its main supplier Kuwait Petroleum Corp., people familiar with the matter said. 

PSO has requested more diesel from KPC and bought cargoes from the spot market, a spokesman for the retailer said in an emailed response to questions. “Product is moving toward the west” and there is a need to diversify international supplies due to the challenges, the company said, without saying if it had received additional diesel.

Pakistan’s difficulties come amid a global shortage of the industrial and transport fuel that’s been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s putting more pressure on government finances after Prime Minister Imran Khan cut domestic fuel and electricity prices at the start of March, despite agreeing the opposite with the International Monetary Fund.

See also: An Oil Price Rally Is Bad. A Diesel Crisis Is Worse: Javier Blas

The nation’s energy costs had already been increasing. They more than doubled to $12 billion in July through January from the previous seven-month period, according to government data. 

Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has proposed that PSO buy fuel for the nation’s private retailers for the next three months as the surging prices make it tough to break even, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. 

While its term supplies remain undisrupted, the state-owned retailer bought a diesel cargo set to load in late March on the spot market at a premium of nearly three times that of its agreed term contract. A purchase tender for an April-loading cargo went without offers, according to traders.

Pakistan’s diesel and petroleum inventories stand at more than one month’s demand, the highest in many years, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said in a Twitter post this week. 

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