MOSCOW: Pakistan and Russian Federation are all set to sign a government-to-government agreement on laying Karachi-Lahore Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline today (Friday), officials said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also present on the occasion.
The project will be headed by RT Global Resources, a subsidiary of Russia’s state technologies corporation Rostec.
The deal with Pakistan comes after more than a decade of talks about gas pipeline projects.
Novak is expected to visit Tehran on October 21 for a two-day visit to discuss energy cooperation. “Considering the serious nature of Pakistan’s gas shortage, which stands at over 8 billion cubic feet per Day (BCFD), import of LNG is the only available option to cope with the crisis, as the construction of other imported gas projects including Iran-Pakistan (IP) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) are uncertain”, said the official.
“The new pipeline will be a major step in solving the problem of energy resource deficit in Pakistan’s central and northern regions, which is hampering Pakistan’s economic growth”, Pakistani Minister Abbasi said.
The pipeline is scheduled to be completed by 2018 and will be commissioned by 2020.
The project will be capable of transporting 1. The draft inter government agreement was approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in July 2015. After that the pipeline will be handed over to the Pakistan government.
From Pakistan side, the meeting was attended by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, Secretary Petroleum Arshad Mirza and other senior officers from Petroleum Ministry and PM Office.
Currently, exploration on the pipeline’s route and engineering work is underway.
The first phase is expected to be completed by December 2017.
Alexander Novak said in the statement.
The construction of the pipeline will provide orders for Russian industrial enterprises and will contribute to an increase in non-oil exports.
The Russian Energy minister expressed hope and satisfaction that his visit would pave the way for intensive energy cooperation between both the countries.
