At a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Pakistan to sign deals worth $46 billion, the Russian government has also decided to invest a whopping $2 billion in Pakistan to build a 1,100-kilometre pipeline from Karachi to Lahore to transport liquefied natural gas.
According to Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan and Russia have finalised a deal to build an LNG pipeline and the two countries will sign a government-to-government agreement in this regard next month. He says that the Russian companies will be awarded the contract to build the pipeline in return for the investment and Russia will start its first LNG exports in 2016 and has also offered to sell gas to Pakistan.
After signing of a formal agreement between the two sides, the government will also sign a commercial agreement with a Russian firm which will be identified by Moscow as its preferred contractor to build the pipeline as the contract will be awarded without going through a formal bidding process. Abbasi says that the financing for the LNG pipeline comes as a prelude to Russia’s offer to sell LNG to Pakistan. According to experts, Russia is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the world, and is seeking to diversify its export markets after a spat last year with the European Union, its main buyer, over Ukraine crisis.
Russia has promised to make investment in Pakistan after its relations with the United States soured in recent years. During the former Soviet Union era several years ago, the country had financed the construction of the Pakistan Steel Mills in Karachi. The Soviet Union had also provided oil drilling equipment for the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Company. Currently, Pakistan is working on two pipelines to transport re-gasified LNG from Karachi to Lahore. The first pipeline will connect Gwadar Port to Nawabshah – the main natural gas pipeline hub while the second will connect Karachi to Lahore.
India is arch rival of Pakistan and China and paying the price of keeping alive the uncalled for hostility with the two countries. Most of its people are leading a live below human level and dignity, but it is spending billions of dollars on purchasing every kind of arms and ammunition from the world over, including Israel. If India cooperates with Pakistan and China in the field of economy and investment, it can change the lot of its people.
