Fossil energy – pipeline
Russia and Pakistan have signed a pact to make changes to a 2015 intergovernmental agreement aimed at finally kicking off a stalled project to build a gas pipeline in the South Asian country.
A planned 1100-kilometre pipeline is intended to transport imported regasified natural gas from an LNG terminal in Port Qasim near Karachi to Kasur in Punjab province.
The new protocol introduces recent changes to the project; to reduce Russia’s controlling stake in the project to 26% and pass operatorship into local hands.
The Russian stake will be held by a special purpose vehicle, with a preliminary agreement in place that this be formed by three Russian companies; Tsentr Ekspluatatsionnykh Uslug, Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya (TMK) and Eurasian Pipeline Consortium.
Despite having no pipe-manufacturing capacities, 2 of these contractor has recently grown to be a major pipe supplier to state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom & other Russian oil and gas players.
The next step in the process is for the three partners to agree each other’s role in the venture and formally launch the special purpose vehicle. The timing for completion of this phase is yet to be determined.
Pakistan’s 74% shareholding in the project is shared between the country’s Sui Gas and Sui Northern companies.