According to Tabish Gauhar, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Power and Petroleum, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) would not build a refinery in Gwadar.
Instead, he said, the Saudis want to build a refinery and a petrochemical chemical complex near either Hub or Karachi.
“However, there has been no statement from Aramco as to when and where the deep conversion refinery with a capacity of refining 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day will be built,” he said.
Read more: Plans for $10bn Saudi Aramco refinery in Pakistani ‘oil city’ ready by year-end
When Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman visited Pakistan in February 2019, he signed numerous memorandums of understanding for projects worth $20 billion in various sectors of the economy, half of which was to be invested in a refinery and petrochemical complex in Gwadar.
However, Saudi Aramco later concluded that a refinery in Gwadar would not be economical after conducting a feasibility study. According to the research, the refinery would be financially viable if it were built in Hub, Balochistan, or in Karachi, Sindh.
According to sources acquainted with the situation, a new refinery with a capacity of over 200,000 barrels per day is expected to be operational within the next five years.
If the Saudi government sends a delegation for follow-up meetings after the cooling of bilateral relations, the Pakistani government is likely to bring up the $10 billion refinery investment.
According to SAPM Gauhar, the Petroleum Division has yet to hear anything regarding the refinery’s progress.
