‘UAE to establish oil refinery in Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to invest $5 billion in an oil refinery project in Pakistan by the end of 2019, Arab news publication Arab News reported on Friday.

Talking to the newspaper, UAE Ambassador Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al-Zaabi said “we are going to launch one of the biggest investments in a refinery project in Hub very soon”. “It is going to be a $5 billion investment between Mubadala Petroleum Company of Abu Dhabi, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) and OMV [OMV Pakistan Exploration Gesellschaft],” the envoy was quoted as saying.

Al-Zaabi said the project was the result of extensive discussions between Mubadala Petroleum and Pakistan’s petroleum ministry along with PARCO and OMV. The project was finalised during Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Pakistan visit earlier this year.

The discussion are ongoing on the minute details of the refinery project, the enjoy said, adding that a delegation headed by Mubadala Petroleum chief, Musabbeh Al Kaabi, visited Pakistan and met with the chairman of board of investment chairman and petroleum minister in this regard.

Earlier this week, it was reported that at least six oil refineries were at different stages of completion to ramp up crude oil refining capacity in Pakistan by around five per cent. According to sources, the government was offering ‘unprecedented’ incentives to downstream the sector in order to meet the rapidly growing energy demand.

A senior official told APP that as many as six projects, investment initiatives, and proposals in oil refining sector were in pipeline to purify crude of around 1.110 million barrels of oil per day.