A Saudi delegation visiting Islamabad has held talks about potential investment in a proposed refinery at Pakistan’s port of Gwadar, with intended throughput capacity of 500,000 b/d, costing $8-9bn, according to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
Pakistan’s Minister of Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan says he is looking to sign an MoU for the project soon. However, Pakistan will see a number of projects already in the queue for Aramco investment. Aramco has to date signed up for equity contributions totaling $33bn in downstream projects, of which the largest are for 50% of a $20bn, 9mn t/y Saudi crude oil to chemicals project with Sabic and a 25% stake in India’s giant $44bn, 1.2mn b/d Ratnagiri refinery/petchems project. Aramco may also be faced with stumping up as much as $70bn to buy up to 70% of Sabic from state investment fund PIF (MEES, 5 October and MEES, 10 August). (CONTINUED - 149 WORDS)