Pakistan will import 20,000 tons of additional gas from Azerbaijan during the next two months to meet its demand in the country, said Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Sunday.
Talking to a local news channel, he said the Russian petroleum minister would visit Pakistan in January 2023 for holding negotiations on an agreement for import of crude oil from Russia.
Musadik Malik was confident that Russia would export crude oil to Pakistan on discount rate.
He said the government was working on TAPI gas pipeline project to import 1300 billion MF Gas yearly from Azerbaijan to meet the gas shortage in the country.
He said, “Our gas reservoirs are decreasing every year that cause additional pressure to import maximum gas to meet the demand.”
On December 16, Minister of State for Petroleum Division Musadik Malik had said Russian Energy Minister was arriving Pakistan next month to finalise negotiations to import crude oil from Russia on discounted rates.
Talking to media in Islamabad, Musadik Malik had said a Pakistani delegation, after consulting three Pakistani refineries, recently visited Moscow and held productive discussions to import crude oil and finished petroleum products from Russia. He had said Russia had offered two of its eight kinds of crude oils, which were also processable at Pakistani refineries.
Answering a question regarding Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement that Pakistan was neither importing oil from Russia nor making any efforts for the purpose, Musadik Malik had said at present Pakistan was not importing oil from Russia but was in a process of negotiations with the Russian energy minister to buy petroleum products.
It is pertinent to mention that Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Saturday said that government has provided maximum relief on petroleum products to facilitate the masses in the country.
In a tweet, the minister said that during the month from September 30 to December 15, 2022, the petrol price in the country was reduced by Rs 22.63 as it went down from Rs 247.43 to Rs 214.80 per litre.
Meanwhile, the prices of diesel and light diesel oil were also reduced by Rs19.63 and Rs28.28 per litre respectively during the period under review.
He said that the price of diesel reduced from Rs247.43 to Rs 227.80 per litre and price of light diesel oil brought down from Rs197.26 to Rs169 per litre to provide maximum relief to general public in the county.
Finance Minister said that the price of kerosene oil was also reduced by Rs30.19 per litre as it went down from Rs202.02 in September 30, 2022 to Rs171.84 in December 15, 2022.
