By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: A delegation led by State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Monday has left for Russia to discuss an agreement for the import of oil at cheap price.
The agreement for the import of oil at a cheap price will help Pakistan save dollars and tackle skyrocketing fuel prices.
The delegation led by Musadik Malik comprised of secretary petroleum Muhammad Mahmood and others will discuss cooperation between Islamabad and Moscow in the petroleum sector. Furthermore, the construction work on the Pak-Stream Gas Line will also come under discussion.
Earlier, the National Assembly was informed that a high-power delegation would soon visit Russia to negotiate any possibility of long-term cooperation to acquire gas and oil.
According to details, Parliamentary Secretary for Petroleum Division Hamid Hameed told the House in response to a question during Question Hour. “At present Russia has not offered to supply gas to Pakistan,” he said.
Hamid Hameed, however, added the government of Pakistan had written a letter to Russian authorities on the 11th of the last month, conveying interest to procure two to three cargoes of LNG for the month of December 2022 and January next year at discounted price and deferred payment facility.
Sunday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had expressing a hope that the current tour will be successful. He also hoped that Pakistan would succeed in inking the agreement on favourable terms, saying Pakistan will not face any risk of default, the finance minister said that all due payments will be made timely.
Earlier this month, the country’s finance czar said that the US could not stop Pakistan from purchasing the Russian oils. Addressing a gathering in Dubai on November 13, Dar also said Islamabad aimed at signing the import deal with Moscow on terms similar to those agreed by New Delhi.
He said that the US had been conveyed that Pakistan could buy oil from Russian because India was doing the same. The minister went on to say that it was decided in the meeting that Pakistan could strike a deal to buy Russian oil.
The US and EU and UK are intending to impose by December 5 a price cap on Russian crude oil in the international market somewhere between $65 and $70 per barrel. However, there are reports that some EU countries may have differences of opinion on the price cap, which may delay the announcement of the price of Russian oil by G-7 countries.
Russia’s flagship crude grade Urals currently trades at around $52 per barrel, more than $10 a barrel lower than the low end of a proposed G7-EU-UK price cap of $65-$70 per Russian barrel of crude.
After the price cap, the EU countries would use their own vessels for using the Russian oil below the price cap and transactions would be done through their banks under SWIFT mode.
