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Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik on Sunday said plans were underway to launch a scheme with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar for oil storage to strengthen energy security.
Pakistan has been planning to boost domestic storage for crude oil and refined products to increase its energy security, it emerged in May. With no strategic petroleum reserves, the country has been left exposed to oil supply shocks resulting from the US-Iran war that has choked supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore today, Malik said: “I am grateful to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar that we will have a bonded scheme with them, under which these countries will store their oil on the secure territories of Pakistan at their own cost, and supply to the entire world from here.”
He added that Pakistan will have the right that in the case of a conflict, it could “buy those resources from them by paying for them and fulfil our needs”.
