Oil refinery for Pakistani coast

Abu Dhabi is set to play a key role in building a US$5 billion oil refinery on the Pakistani coast, Pakistani officials have confirmed.

The refinery will be built in the province of Baluchistan, in south-western Pakistan, according to the Saudi Press Agency. It was previously postponed in January due to the global recession and a row over management issues with Islamabad, The Peninsula said.

"The major contentious issues have been resolved and the project will soon be kicked off," said a senior official of Pakistan's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.

Joint project

The Khalifa Coastal Refinery project is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi state-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and the Pak-Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO), which is jointly owned by Pakistan and Abu Dhabi.

PARCO will hold 24 percent of shares and IPIC the other 76 percent in the refinery, while the Pakistani government will own 60 percent of PARCO's share.

DPA, the German Press Agency, also reported that the refinery will have a daily production capacity of 250,000 barrels.

When the refinery is completed, Pakistan's capacity would be doubled from the current 248,506 barrels per day.

Last month, IPIC reported that profits for the first half of the year surged more than 15-fold to US$2.12 billion following a one-off sale of Barclays instruments.

In October, the IPIC also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Oman Oil Company for the potential development of a refinery and petrochemical complex in the sultanate.

Plan

Ahsanullah Khan, Pakistan's former ambassador to Abu Dhabi, said in mid-2008 that the cost estimates of US$5 billion for the refinery project would "increase substantially."

It includes a 250-megawatt power generation plant, mini port terminal, an electric power grid station, road network and other necessary infrastructure, he said.

Some oil products refined at the new plant would be exported to Pakistan's neighbouring countries, officials said.

 

 

Related News:

Takreer strikes deal for oil refinery |Refining operations |Oman Oil Company sign new deal

 

Like this article? Get the RSS feed:

blog comments powered by Disqus