The federal government is considering a multibillion dollar transaction that may involve an LNG pipeline arrangement with Russia.This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to build an LNG pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and subsequently to India at a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the most recent SCO summit.
According to a national daily, Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik has been entrusted with carrying out an investigation to identify workable solutions that take US sanctions against Russia and Iran into account.The current amount of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Russia is between $800 and $900 million year, however there are ambitions to raise this amount to $20–$25 billion annually.
Different routes are being considered for the potential LNG project. Pakistan also wants to strengthen its trading relations with Azerbaijan, whose president is expected to visit Islamabad shortly. A 1,100-kilometer pipeline to transfer LNG from Karachi to power plants in Punjab was agreed upon by Pakistan and Russia in 2015.
The pipeline can carry up to 16 billion cubic meters of cargo per year, however its current capacity is 12.4 billion.Pakistan wants to move on with the Russian LNG project in order to best manage its domestic energy demands, even though there has been no development in almost ten years.
