KARACHI: A second cargo of 55,000 tonnes of Russian crude oil arrived at Karachi port on Tuesday.
As soon as the vessel’s berthing plan is finalised, it will be docked at the oil jetty. According to the earlier information received from the sources, the ‘Clyde Noble’ ship was carrying Ural oil in the Arabian Sea and was heading towards the port of Karachi.
“The ship is expected to arrive at Karachi port by Tuesday,” an oil industry insider told JEE News earlier.
According to the agreement between Islamabad and Moscow, the second cargo was to arrive on June 20. However, it was delayed by a week and was supposed to be in the dock today.
Lack of space in the Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) storage tank was cited as the reason for the delay. PRL is the first domestic refinery to procure crude oil from Russia under a government-led deal.
Pakistan received its first cargo of Russian crude oil on June 12 when a tanker carrying 45,000 tonnes of crude oil arrived at Karachi port.
The government placed its first order of 100,000 tonnes of Russian crude oil in April this year after months of negotiations between the two countries on the terms and conditions of the deal.
Under the deal, Russia sent the first oil tanker carrying 100,000 metric tons of crude oil, which arrived at an Omani port earlier this month. However, the authorities decided that it will be transported to Pakistan by small ships as the Pakistani port cannot accommodate heavy ships carrying more than 50,000 tons of oil cargo.
It is to be noted that on April 21, a vessel loaded with Ural crude was delayed for 10 days due to technical reasons at the port of Russia.
“It then arrived at Egypt’s Suez Canal on May 17, where it waited in long lines for 12 days to cross the canal.”
Pakistan imports 70 percent of its crude oil, which is refined by PRL, National Refinery Limited, Pak Arab Refinery Limited, and Byco Petroleum. The remaining 30% is produced and refined locally by Attock Refinery Limited, a domestic enterprise.
Oil industry insiders said PRL is currently in the process of refining Russian crude oil to produce much-needed petroleum products. Russian crude oil was being blended with Arabian crude oil, which arrived a few days ago following the PRL order for the essential oil, he said.
