A new consortium of two Russian companies will undertake the construction project of the 1122 km-long gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore after the federal law ministry on Tuesday denied clearance to Russian consortium TMK.
TMK, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry, was refused clearance by the ministry as the name of its chief, Dmitry Pumpyansky, was placed on the US sanctions watchlist.
Following the Law Ministry’s decision, the Petroleum Division requested the Russian government which provided a consortium of two new companies — LLC Eurasian Pipeline and Federal State Unitary Enterprise – to take part in the $2bn project.
The government is expected to sign a deal for the pipeline with the companies in April 2020.
The existing gas infrastructure of Pakistan lacks the capacity to transport an additional large volume of gas supplies from southern to northern regions of the country. Therefore, keeping in view the expected additional gas supplies in near future, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has planned to undertake the laying of gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore under the title “North-South Gas Pipeline Project”.
The ECC in its meeting held on January 10, 2015, approved the North-South Gas Pipeline Project under a government-to-government arrangement. The proposed N-S pipeline, to be laid down with a diameter of 42 inches, will have the capacity to evacuate 1.2bcfd gas.
