Pakistan will start importing Russian oil in early April, State Oil Minister of the Islamic republic Musadiq Malik said on Friday.
"The first batch of crude oil from Russia will be delivered to Pakistan in the first week of next month," The Express Tribune quoted the state minister as saying.
In January, representatives of the Pakistani and Russian governments reached a conceptual agreement on Russian oil shipments and agreed to coordinate logistics, insurance, payment, and export volumes before they start.
Under the agreement with Russia, Pakistan has initiated a comprehensive energy security plan. It provides for the import of crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas and other fuels from Russia.
Previously, Pakistan imported about 70 million barrels of oil annually from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which accounted for 50.6 percent and 41.3 percent of its supplies, respectively.
Islamabad expects that imports from Russia will meet up to 35% of Pakistan's crude oil needs in the future.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Kevin Casper/СС0
Based on materials from TASS