No progress yet on $8 billion Saudi investment

ISLAMABAD, August 24: A meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday revealed that no progress on the investment of $8 billion from Saudi Arabia in Pakistan. The investment could not be made due to the lack of oil refinery policy. Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman had announced investment in oil refinery during his to Pakistan. Additional Secretary Petroleum said that Saudi Arabia was to establish an oil refinery in Hub and Gwadar area of Balochistan, the draft of the refinery policy was prepared last month but it still require two more months. He said it took more than a year to prepare the policy
Chairman OGRA said that the last oil refinery was established in 2002 and the refinery policy is old. Petroleum division officials said that due to the lack of capacity of the oil refinery, 70 percent of the petrol and diesel are imported and only 30 percent of the finished products are being obtained from the refineries. The additional secretary Petroleum said that crude oil is only available from Saudi Arabia on deferred payments, while petrol and diesel are not available from Saudi Arabia on deferred payments. He said that due to old agreements, India can buy 100% cheap oil from Russia, but no agreement has been reached between Pakistan and Russia to buy cheap oil. -SABAH