Russia to supply oil at discount: Musadik

ISLAMABAD: Reiterating his earlier stance, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik Friday said Russia will supply crude oil, petrol and diesel to Pakistan at the maximum possible discount.

Musadik’s statement came a day after Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in an interview with the US media said, “As far as Russia is concerned, we aren’t pursuing or receiving any discounted energy, but we are facing an extremely difficult economic situation.”

Addressing a press conference here, Musadik said Pakistan was pursuing Russian oil import at discounted rates.

On Bilawal’s stance on the issue, the minister said he could not listen to his press conference.

“We lacked something that we should have given in detail to the Foreign Office,’’ the minister said, adding that his ministry will clear all misperceptions to the Foreign Office in this regard.

He said Pakistan’s ambassador in Russia was also part of negotiations with Russia on oil import.

“This is some technical confusion which we will address,” he added.

This was the second press conference of the petroleum minister on the issue in the last 10 days, as earlier after coming back from Russia on Dec 5, he had held a news conference.

Now in this conference, the minister repeated the same information that he divulged in his earlier presser indicating that it was the statement of Bilawal Bhutto that compelled the PML-N-led government to reiterate its stance.

Regarding his visit to Russia, Musadik said the visit had been very positive.

“There are eight types of crude oil in Russia, two of which can be refined in Pakistan,” he said, adding that PRL and Parco had expressed their willingness to refine the Russian crude oil.

He said Pakistan will import Russian oil at discounted rates which would reduce the cost of energy.

Russia will also supply diesel and petrol to Pakistan, he said, adding that lower energy prices will reduce the cost of production, transportation, and storage of everything, which will also lower the commodity prices.

A delegation of the Inter-Governmental Commission, headed by the Russian energy minister, will visit Pakistan in the second week of January to discuss and finalise matters related to the import of crude oil, diesel, and petrol.

The supply of oil from Russia will start early next year, the minister said.

The state minister also said that Azerbaijan was also to provide cheaper LNG and talks were also going on with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to get diesel and petrol.

Pakistan will also import 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day through the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project with Turkmenistan.

Malik said the government was focusing on the development and prosperity of the country to provide relief to the people.

He said the situation of gas supply in October and November was better than last year, as more gas was being supplied in December than last year.

More gas will be available in January, he said, adding that gas production was decreasing at the rate of 10 percent per annum. An additional cargo has been arranged from Qatar to minimize the gas crisis.

On LNG, the minister said the government was working with Azerbaijan on a gas purchase framework agreement, which was being drafted. “Under this framework, we would have a government-to-government level agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, largely known as SOCAR,” he said.

“SOCAR will provide us with distressed cargoes on a monthly basis, and the Government of Pakistan would have the option to purchase these cargoes at given rates or not. “This will help us increase our gas supply,” he said.

“SOCAR has already offered Pakistan LNG cargo for December 14. However, we were unable to purchase it as both our terminals were not available,” he said.

He said a cell had been established in the Ministry of Petroleum to review the implementation of energy projects.

Pakistan has also discussed the issue of getting crude oil from Kazakhstan through a pipeline, he added.