China to establish oil refinery in Karachi

Indus Refinery Limited (IRL) and China have agreed to establish an oil refinery in Karachi to meet the growing demand.

KARACHI: Indus Refinery Limited (IRL) and China have agreed to establish an oil refinery in Pakistan to meet the growing demand of fuel oil in the country, Pakistan’s Embassy in China announced on Thursday.

The China International Project Investment Management Centre in this connection signed an agreement with Pakistan’s Indus Refinery in Beijing. Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Masood Khan, witnessed the signing ceremony.

Chairman and CEO of IRL, Mohammed Sohail Shamsi, is currently in China finalising the deal. The refinery will be set up in Karachi with a capacity of 203,000 barrels per day.

The Express Tribune spoke to IRL’s Finance Manager, Asif Ahmed, in Karachi who informed that as yet they also do not have details of the project such as when work on the refinery would commence or investment that would be made in establishing the refinery.

IRL is located near Port Qasim on the main National Highway, approximately 21 kilometres from Fotco Oil Jetty.

The site is strategically located near Pak Arab Refinery Company (Parco) White Oil Pipeline Terminal, PSO’s Zulfiqarabad Pipri Oil Terminal and Pakistan State Oil’s Marshalling Yard.

IRL was registered in 2004 as a public limited company. The authorised share capital is Rs6 billion divided into 600 million ordinary shares of Rs10 per share, according to its website.

However, Ahmed informed that this figure would change and improve once work on the establishment of the Chinese project commences.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2010.