Islamabad: China has been extended an offer by Pakistan for setting up a mid-country deep-conversion oil refinery in Lahore, according to officials.
This was also followed by an offer to lay the second Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline from Karachi to Lahore to serve energy starved consumers in the province. It will carry 1.2b cubic feet of LNG per day.
A Chinese delegation was made this offer on a visit of a Chinese delegation headed by Nur Bekri, Administrator of National Energy Administration last month.
Pakistani side urged China to establish an oil and gas sub-group falling under the Energy Working Group for providing assistance for energy and production projects.
The delegation was informed that Pakistan would like to work outside the scope of CPEC and establish government to government agreement for working on gas infrastructure and oil projects commercially.
China was also urged to invest money in the establishment of deep-conversion refinery having production capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (BPD) in Lahore.
Work on an independent project is already being carried out to set-up a 250,000 bpd deep-conversion refinery in partnership with Abu Dhabi in Karachi.
50pc of the energy supply needs are met by natural gas and oil has a 32pc share in it. Currently, the demand of petrol is increasing by 20pc annually and diesel by 10pc yearly.
