ISLAMABAD – Months after the visit of the Russian delegation to Pakistan for cooperation in energy and other sectors, the crisis-hit country has finally placed its first order for discounted Russian crude oil.
Islamabad placed the order under a new deal struck between two friendly nations, with one cargo expected to dock in South Asian nation next month. Islamabad’s purchase gives Kremlin a new outlet for its crude and will push its growing sales while facing the ban in West over the Ukraine invasion.
As the deal will help Moscow, it will also help crisis-hit Pakistan which is facing a balance of payments crisis and low foreign exchange reserves, with energy imports being the heftiest for country’s external payments.
Musadik Malik told a foreign news outlet that the deal will see Islamabad buy only crude oil, and not refined fuel with imports expected to reach 100k barrels per day if the maiden transaction goes through as per the plan. Malik said Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) will refine the Russian crude, with other refineries to be included later after a maiden project.
The South Asian nation imported 154,000 barrels per day of oil last year, with UAE, and Saudi Arabia remains the top seller of the commodity.
Meanwhile, the PML-N stalwart refrained to share whether Pakistan will pay in Chinese currency or UAE dirham for crude transactions, as the fifth most populous country facing dollar crunch.
Let it be known that Russian crude imports are expected to help Pakistan reduce its reliance on imports from other countries to slash the cost of energy imports, which has been a major burden on Pakistan’s economy.
