Russia team due next month to seal oil deal

Officials from Islamabad and Moscow hold online meeting on buying crude oil, POL products

ISLAMABAD:

A delegation from Moscow will reach Islamabad next month to discuss the possibility of Russian oil sale.

According to government sources, a meeting was held between Pakistani and Russian officials through a video link on buying crude oil and petroleum products from Moscow.

State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik and the petroleum secretary participated in the online meeting from the Pakistani side.

The sources added that officials of the Russian energy ministry represented their side in the online moot.

According to the sources, the Russian officials informed the other side about their intention to visit Pakistan on January 19 and 20 to discuss further modalities on the purchase of crude oil and petroleum products.

They added that the two sides also discussed the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the inter-governmental commission between the two countries.

Earlier this month, Musadik had said at a news conference that Russia would sell crude oil to Pakistan at a discounted price, days after he led a government team to Moscow to negotiate the deal.

He added that Russia would also supply discounted petrol and diesel to Pakistan.
However, the state minister had not specified the price of the discounted Russian oil.

He also refrained from disclosing whether or not the imports would comply with a $60 per barrel cap imposed by the G7 nations and EU on Russian seaborne oil from this week over the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Malik claimed that the visit to Russia had been “very positive” in connection with crude oil imports from that country.

“There are eight types of crude oils in Russia, two of which can be refined in Pakistan,” he said.

He added that the Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) and Pak-Arab Refinery Company Limited (Parco) had expressed their willingness to refine the Russian crude oil.

He further said Pakistan would import Russian oil at discounted rates and that would reduce the cost of energy in the country.

“Lower energy prices will reduce the cost of production, transportation and storage of everything, which will also bring down commodity prices,” he maintained.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TASS news agency that in the long-term, Moscow could send its natural gas to the markets of Afghanistan and Pakistan, either using the infrastructure of Central Asia, or in a swap from the territory of Iran.

Pakistan has been unable to procure liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the international market because spot prices remain out of its range and shipments under long-term deals remain insufficient to match the rising demand.

With dwindling local gas reserves, the country has begun to ration supplies to residential and commercial consumers.

The Pakistani media has also reported that oil supplies remain tenuous because of difficulties in paying for imports.

(With input from Reuters)