ISLAMABAD
\nMinister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Tuesday said the deal struck by Pakistan with Russia for crude oil import would help the government pass on financial relief to the masses who had been bearing brunt of inflation stemmed from the previous government\u2019s flawed economic policies.
\n\u201cThis is the history since it is the first time that crude oil from Russia has been arrived in Pakistan,\u201d the minister said while addressing a news conference here.
\nHe refused to divulge details of the commercial terms of the oil deal with Russia due to agreements signed by both sides for confidentiality.
\n\u201cI want to say to my political opponents that Russian oil has reached Pakistan, which will benefit the people, so at least congratulate the nation today,\u201d he said while accusing the previous government of misleading the masses on the subject.
\nThe PTI government, in fact, did not manage to get any oil deal with Russia which was also confirmed by the Russian government\u2019s officials.
\nHe said Pakistan had imported 100,000 tons of oil from Russia initially with plans to gradually increase the quantity over time as the country would meet its quarterly oil requirements through the utilization of Russian oil.
\nHe said the previous regime had made baseless claims, suggesting that the PTI government\u2019s attempt to import oil from Russia led to its alleged removal.
\n\u201cIf this is true then how we have imported oil from Russia successfully,\u201d he questioned.
\nMusadik said the government wanted good relations with all countries including Russia, America, Europe, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and China as Pakistan was not part of any group.
\nHe said that the government intended to ink a $10 billion contract, before the end of its tenure, so a new oil refinery could be established in Pakistan.
\nThe minister said that Pakistan had also received a contract from Azerbaijan, which was available to the cabinet.
\n\u201cUnder the contract, the Central Asian country would provide Pakistan a distressed LNG cargo monthly. The LNG price would be much lower than in the international market,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister said that under the terms of the contract, it would be Pakistan\u2019s prerogative to accept the cargo or not, but Azerbaijan would be obligated to provide distress cargo monthly.
\nHe added that at the same time, the government had offered the European countries to establish LNG plants in Pakistan, therefore, Pakistan could become a transit route for gas transportation from Central Asian countries to Europe.
\nA delegation of officials from Turkmenistan arrived in Pakistan last week the minister said and added that \u201cWe signed a Joint Implementation Plan with them, they (Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf) had four years, but they didn\u2019t sign any contract\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Tuesday said the deal struck by Pakistan with Russia for crude oil import would help the government pass on financial relief to the masses who had been bearing brunt of inflation stemmed from the previous government\u2019s flawed economic policies. \u201cThis is the history since it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-337407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n