Pakistan paid for its first government-to-government import of Russian crude in Chinese currency, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said on Monday, a significant shift in its US dollar-dominated export payments policy.

The first cargo of discounted Russian crude oil arranged under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow arrived in Karachi on Sunday. It is currently being offloaded at the port.

First-ever crude-laden Russian ship arrives

Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik, talking to Reuters by phone, did not disclose the commercial details of the deal, including pricing or the discount that Pakistan received.

“We’ve run iterations of various product mixes, and in no scenario will refining this crude make a loss,” Malik said.

“We are very sure it will be commercially viable.”

Earlier, Business Recorder reported the first-ever Russian oil ship carrying over 45,000 metric tons of crude arrived at Karachi Port on Sunday.

The port sources confirmed that the Russian ship ‘Pure Point’ carried 45,142 metric tons of crude, anchored at oil tankers’ berth OP2 of Karachi Port Trust.

Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) will initially refine the Russian crude in a trial run. After refining, PRL will submit the test report to the government on the Russian crude’s quality, yields and commercial viability. The PRL’s test report will help the government to assess the transportation and refining costs and margins for refineries.

Comments

Comments are closed.

Tulukan Mairandi Jun 12, 2023 06:32pm
What a failed deal. The 100,000 MT vessel had to offload the oil into two 50,000 MT vessels in Oman, then those offloaded in Pakistan, resulting in huge losses. Pakistan is so backward it can't even handle a 100,000MT tanker.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Jani Walker Jun 12, 2023 06:36pm
“We are very sure it will be commercially viable.” This line from Musadick spells out that this is going to be a loss making venture. Whether payment is in Yuan or Dollar makes no difference. It still comes out of the countries FX. Landed price of Arab crude is far cheaper plus it produces much higher percentage of diesel and higher octane products and less furnace oil than Russian crude.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Tulukan Mairandi Jun 12, 2023 06:41pm
Still trials and errors to refine crude oil? India cracked it in days.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Moid Jun 12, 2023 08:29pm
Why not Pak Rs?
thumb_up Recommended (0)