Preparations for Russian oil agreement complete, says minister

Malik says Russia to potentially give Pakistan higher discount than other countries

ISLAMABAD:

State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Saturday said that preparations for the agreement to purchase discounted oil from Russia were complete.

Talking to a private news channel regarding the agreement, Malik said that the entire delegation, including the Russian Energy Minister, was set to visit Pakistan. 

“Serious talks are going on with Russia and delegations will arrive only when preparations are completed,” he added.

Malik maintained that Russia would either give Pakistan a discount equal to that it was giving other countries or a potentially higher discount. 

He furthered that the ministry would try its best to settle the matter in the interest of Pakistan. 

“We spoke to Russia after meeting with oil refineries. Preparation of the contract is complete but we cannot speak prematurely,” he said.

Malik also said that refineries are linking the dam duty with investment in the policy, the duty savings would be invested by the refineries and the government would audit them regularly.

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He stated that it is in the “interest of our country to invest money in innovation and upgrading of refineries,” adding that “our refineries produce more furnace oil which has no market anywhere”.

Earlier, Malik and the petroleum secretary participated in the online meeting with Russia 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.

At a news presser in December last year, Malik had said 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.