LNG deal with Azerbaijan to help end gas crisis by next winter: Musadik

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik Wednesday assured that Pakistan’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) purchase agreement framework with Azerbaijan under government-to-government cooperation would end gas crisis in the next winter season.

Talking to media persons, he said Azerbaijan’s trading company SOCAR will supply a LNG cargo each month to Pakistan at a cheaper price than the global price of the month.

Under Pak-Azerbaijan one-year agreement, Azerbaijan would help Pakistan to fulfil its energy needs through cooperation in the fields of oil and gas and also provide training to Pakistanis in LNG trading and business.

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Replying to a question about the shortage of gas, he said in winter, we would be able to control the gas shortage as one additional cargo would come from Azerbaijan and one from Qatar.

Musaddiq Malik negated the stories on social media that Russian crude oil arrived in Pakistan from India. He said it was Russian crude which would be refined by Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL).

The Russian crude will first be refined by the PRL in a trial run. The Pak-Arab Refinery (Parco) and private refineries would also start receiving the shipments. The PRL experts confirmed that this fuel could be used after blending with Arabian light crude: 30-35 percent Russian fuel could be mixed with the Arabian light crude, which meant that this fuel could account for one-third of Pakistan’s fuel needs.

He said Parco put the blending ratio at 25-30 percent, he said, adding that a private refinery, which he refused to name, put the blending percentage of Russian oil with the Arabia light crude could at 70-80 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023