Much has been said about importing Russian crude in order to bring relief to the economy, but let us run some numbers to see how much of a difference it can actually make. According to news reports, our refineries can handle up to 30-35 per cent Russian crude at most. Meanwhile, Pakistan is looking for a 30-40 per cent discount on Russian oil. Combine the two sets of numbers and we get a potential saving of somewhere around 10 to14 per cent on our oil import bill. But then, there will also be the extra costs associated with transportation and logistics. Furthermore, there is also the matter of getting around the financial sanctions placed on Russia. Any banks still willing to process payments to and from Russia are doing so at a premium. All in all, let us take 10 per cent as a ball-park savings figure. In the first quarter of the current fiscal year our import bill was around $5 billion. Take 10 per cent off of that and we get $4.5 billion.
Our current account deficit was around $2.3 billion in the previous fiscal year, and it is only getting bigger. Reducing it by half a billion would be nice, but it is not going to be a game changer. Anyone doing politics with the idea that they would have performed a miracle and provided major relief by purchasing Russian oil is simply misleading the public.
Aqil Sajjad
Tucson
USA