Pakistan approves fuel supply agreement with SOCAR
By Leman Mammadova
Holding close ties in many areas of cooperation, Azerbaijan and Pakistan are also committed to energy cooperation.
Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet of Pakistan has approved the fuel supply agreement with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Trend reports citing Pakistani media.
“Committee accorded approval to a proposal of Ministry of Petroleum regarding Fuel Supply Agreement between Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR),” reads the report.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Petroleum of Pakistan Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that Petroleum Division will try its best to get this agreement ratified from Cabinet so that mutual relation between both countries can be strengthened.
He said that Azerbaijan’s daily production of crude oil was approximately 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) and its annual gas production was approximately 29.4 billion cubic feet.
Moreover, he noted that Pakistan and Azerbaijan will constitute a joint working group on energy.
PSO and SOCAR had finalised a term sale and purchase agreement (TSPA) for supply of petroleum products under the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) signed in 2017.
Pakistan and Azerbaijan had signed IGA in February 2017 for the supply of a number of oil and gas products, including furnace oil, petrol, diesel and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
However, the documents of the deal turned into a shuttlecock between Pakistan State Oil (PSO) offices in Karachi and the Petroleum Division in Islamabad due to bureaucratic hiccups.
Pakistan signed government-to-government deals with Azerbaijan in various areas including supply of electricity, crude and refined oil products, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) on June 20, 2016.
The agreements were set to alllow the two countries to sign multibillion-dollar agreements for trading in oil and gas without going through the bidding process.
Azerbaijan is interested in investing in LNG sector through State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR.
Pakistan has long been an importer of crude and refined oil products from Middle Eastern countries and is now exploring opportunities of importing LNG from other countries including Italy, France, China and Malaysia.
Azerbaijan–Pakistan relations are considered to be of "strategic partners" nature.
The strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Pakistan has contributed to the cooperation in economic, trade, military-technical, energy, tourism and other spheres.
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