Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik stated on Saturday that the first order for Russian crude will be placed by the government next month and it will take the product around four weeks to arrive in Pakistan.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had previously stated that the nation was exploring acquiring Russian oil at a reduced price. He noted that neighboring India had been buying oil from Moscow and that Islamabad had a right to consider the option as well.
Following Malik’s flight to Moscow for discussions on topics including oil and fuel supplies, the government declared that it will buy discounted crude oil, petrol, and diesel from Russia.
A Russian delegation arrived in Islamabad in January 2023 to hold negotiations to seal the accord. The countries agreed to deal with all technical concerns, including insurance, transportation, and payment methods, at the three-day summit to finalize an agreement by the end of March this year.
A joint statement released by the two parties then declared that once consensus on the technical specifications is achieved, the oil and gas trade transaction will be organized in a way it offers a mutual economic benefit for both countries.
Malik added that Russia has told the government that Pakistan was receiving the same discount as all other nearby countries.
Speaking on the government’s decision to set different petrol prices for the wealthy and the poor, the minister claimed that Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were responsible for creating the mechanism.
“Therefore we separated the populace of the nation into the rich and the destitute… As a result, if low-income women use one unit of gas, she will pay one-fourth of the costs that a woman in F-7 or Gulberg pays,” he explained.
