Arya News - The Russian and Pakistani energy ministries are discussing an oil agreement, and Pakistan would like to see it signed, Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said in an interview with Sputnik.
"These are all areas which, you know, play to Russia"s strength. And we would be quite keen for them to come and, you know, take this equation forward with Pakistan. But as I said, this is being currently explored with the ministry of energy on both sides," Aurangzeb said when asked whether Pakistan sees an opportunity to expand cooperation with Russia in the oil sector, including exploration, production, and refining In November, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said that Russia and Pakistan were discussing a project to modernize an oil refinery in the country with the participation of Russian companies. He noted that Russia is also interested in increasing oil supplies.Pakistan sees an opportunity in developing logistics routes to Russia and recognizes the importance of the International North-South Transport Corridor for global trade, he added."Yeah, I think that"s going to be very important," he said when asked whether Pakistan saw an opportunity to expand logistics routes to Russia.Russian Energy Minister previously stated the importance of launching test freight shipments between Russia and Pakistan along the eastern section of the International North-South Transport Corridor to test its readiness and demonstrate its true effectiveness. Russian and Pakistani railways have already laid the necessary foundation.Last winter, the Russian Transport Ministry announced planned test rail freight shipments along the North-South Corridor between Russia and Pakistan.The North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) is a 7,200-kilometer multimodal route from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai (India). There are three ITC routes: the Trans-Caspian (using railways and ports), and the Western and Eastern (overland) routes.In May 2023, Russia and Iran signed documents to complete the final necessary railway section of the corridor"s western route — Rasht-Astara in Iran. The total cost is $1.88 billion: $1.53 billion from Russia, the remainder from Iran.Pakistan and Russia are studying the possible construction of another steel mill in Pakistan, country"s Finance Minister stated."Our minister for industries and production [Rana Tanveer Hussain] visited Moscow a few months ago, where he expressed interest in building a steel plant. The previous large steel plant in the country was built with assistance from Russia. Currently, this is one of the spheres that is being quite actively explored," he said on the sidelines of the Momentum conference in Riyadh.In July, Pakistan and Russia signed a protocol on the restoration and modernization of the steel mill built near the Pakistani city of Karachi during the Soviet era, the Pakistani embassy in Russia told Sputnik. The Pakistan Steel Mills Plant in Karachi was built with the assistance from the USSR in 1973.The use of artificial intelligence will accelerate Pakistan"s economic growth, Pakistani Finance Minister added.