LAHORE: Russia has announced to invest $2 billion in 1,100-km-long pipeline for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Karachi’s port to Lahore.
Ambassador Alexey Y Dedov revealed this during a meeting with the Punjab Board of Investment officials. The project is expected to begin in January and would complete in 2020, delivering an extra 12.4 billion cubic metres of LNG per year and increasing Punjab’s gas supply by 30 per cent.
Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa currently receive 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), almost 50 per cent less than demand of 2.2 bcfd.
Russian companies are interested in joint ventures with local firms to manufacture heavy duty trucks, passenger cars, specialized vehicles, ships, gas turbines and compressors.
The ambassador said that recently, a Russian delegation has held negotiations with Pakistan Petroleum Limited and OGDCL to explore collaboration in oil and gas exploration field. He said Russia’s Gazprom was interested in supplying LNG to Pakistan while RT Global Resources will complete the 1100-km north-south pipeline.
“It’s a breakthrough after 50 years of Pak-Russian ties and I expect more breakthroughs in coming years. 2015 is the best year for trade and investment between the two countries and I expect 2016 will prove even better,” he said.
