Lahore, March 21, 2019 (PPI-OT): Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) has urged the Government to have active consultations with local enterprises for investing and developing Pakistan’s petrochemical sector under the umbrella of Saudi Arabia’s recently announced investments.
Mr. Iqbal Kidwai, Secretary General PCMA, in a press statement issued here today, informed that during the recent visit of Saudi Crown Prince, an MoU for $10 billion investment was signed for building a refinery and petrochemical complex at Gwadar. The work on the project, he said, will start soon once necessary formalities are completed and the facility would become operative in four to five years.
He acknowledged that Saudi Arabia has large refining capacities globally, above 5 million barrels per day and being the largest producer of crude oil and petroleum feed stocks, they have technical and competitive advantage over others in oil refining and producing basic petrochemicals and their derivatives.
He hoped that the move to develop a world-class oil refinery in the coastal area of Balochistan will intuitively mitigate Pakistan’s increasing trade deficit, mounting foreign debt, and depleting foreign exchange reserves. The Gwadar project, led by the state-owned Saudi Aramco, will be Saudi Arabia’s one of the biggest investments in South Asia. He further added that Saudi Arabia wants to stabilize Pakistan’s economic development through large investments in energy and mining sectors as it gears up for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. To pursue Kingdom’s interest, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister who is also the Chairman of the Board for Saudi Aramco, Eng. Khalid A Al-Falih has already visited Gwadar in January and hoped the project will be highly beneficial for both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
PCMA Secretary General lamented that currently around 85% of Pakistan’s petroleum consumption of 22 million mt/year is being met via imports. Since 2016, an increasing share of Pakistan’s natural gas demand is also being met via LNG imports, which is set to hit nearly 16 million mt/year by 2024. He appreciated the present Government’s initiatives for addressing the needs of petrochemical industry.
He informed that besides Saudi Investment in petroleum sector, the present government had also awarded a tax incentive package to Abu Dhabi’s State Investment Company, Mubadala to establish an oil refinery in the Hub Area (Balochistan) with a production capacity of about 250,000 barrels per day. Amid these investments, PCMA suggested that the Government
should preferably engage chemical industries and potential investors in the country for taking stake holding in these projects as these local players have long shown interests in building a Naphtha Cracker Facility in the country from PCMA platform. The PCMA Secretary General suggested to have active participation of local industries for this mega petrochemical project.
For more information, contact:
Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA)
407-Eden Heights, Jail Road, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35786867
E-mail: bds@pcma.org.pk
Website: www.pcma.org.pk