GWADAR – A Saudi delegation headed by Saudi Minister for Energy,Industry, and Minerals Khalid Abdul Aziz Al Falih arrived in Balochistan’sGwadar district on Saturday to inspect the land allocated for a proposedoil refinery, the Radio Pakistan reported.
On his arrival, Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan welcomedthe Saudi minister.
Speaking on the occasion, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that, “Pakistan and SaudiArabia have a distinctive relationship,” adding that the state-of-the-artoil refinery is the biggest investment project of Saudi Arabia in Pakistan.
He further said that during the upcoming visit of Saudi crown prince toPakistan next month a Memorandum of Understanding about the Saudi AramcoOil Refinery will also be signed.
The $10 billion oil refinery at the deep seaport is also the terminal pointof the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Read Top Stories
The Pak Arab Refinery (Parco), a joint venture between Pakistan and AbuDhabi, is also working on Khalifa refinery project with a total refiningcapacity of 250,000 barrels per day. At present, Parco is the largestrefinery in Pakistan that has a refining capacity of 100,000 barrels perday.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE had announced the same packages for Pakistan andRiyadh was likely to set up a refinery with a capacity of 250,000 barrelsper day. At present, the total refining capacity of Pakistan is around300,000 barrels per day.
The previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had allowedthe Frontier Works Organization (FWO) to build an oil pipeline from Gwadarto China at an estimated cost of US$10 billion.
