Tuesday saw the arrival of a second cargo of 55,000 tons of Russian URAL crude in Pakistan, awaiting docking sequence at the Karachi Port in the next few hours.
The ship will dock at the oil pier as soon as the berthing plan is confirmed. The ‘Clyde Noble freighter transporting the URAL crude was in the Arabian Sea and en route to the port of Karachi earlier today.
The second cargo was supposed to arrive on June 20, but it was delayed by a week and is now expected to dock today.
On June 12, a vessel carrying 45,000 tons of Russian crude oil docked at the Karachi port, bringing Pakistan its first delivery of the URAL crude.
The government made the initial order for 100,000 tons of Russian crude oil in April of this year following months of negotiations between the two countries over the terms of the transaction. Russia dispatched the first oil tanker under this agreement, which arrived at the Omani port earlier this month.
However, since the Pakistani port could not accept huge consignments of over 50,000 tons of oil cargo due to limited storage volume at Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), the authorities determined that it would be brought into Pakistan via smaller ships.
In any case, it will likely take PRL roughly two months to refine the fuel as the refinery first blends Russian URAL with crude from Saudi Aramco and then refine it.
In late April, Pakistan placed its first order for Russian crude under a deal struck between Islamabad and Russia. At the time, Energy Minister Musadik Malik highlighted that Pakistan will buy only crude, not refined fuels.
The minister also said that imports of Russian crude are expected to reach 100,000 barrels per day if the first transaction goes through smoothly.
Shehbaz means business
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