On Tuesday, a second shipment of 55,000 tonnes of discounted Russian crude oil arrived at Karachi port. The ship’s docking, named ‘Clyde Noble’, will be scheduled as soon as the berthing plan is finalized.
Originally set to arrive on June 20, the second cargo was delayed by a week and finally docked on June 27. Insufficient storage capacity at the Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) caused the delay. PRL is the first local refinery to procure Russian crude oil under a government-negotiated deal.
Pakistan’s first shipment of Russian crude oil arrived on June 12, with a tanker carrying 45,000 tonnes docking at Karachi port.
The government placed the initial order for 100,000 tonnes of Russian crude oil in April, following extensive discussions on deal terms and conditions.
The first oil tanker of this deal, loaded with 100,000 metric tonnes of crude, arrived at the Omani port earlier this month. The shipment was divided into smaller vessels for transport to Pakistan due to the inability of Pakistani ports to handle ships carrying more than 50,000 tonnes of oil cargo.
The vessel carrying Ural crude was delayed for ten days due to technical issues after being loaded at a Russian port on April 21.
Pakistan imports 70% of its crude oil, refined by companies such as PRL, National Refinery Limited, Pak Arab Refinery Limited, and Byco Petroleum. The remaining 30% is produced and refined domestically by Attock Refinery Limited.
Insiders from the oil industry mentioned that the PRL is refining Russian crude to manufacture essential petroleum products. The Russian crude oil is being combined with Arabian crude, which arrived a few days ago following a PRL order.
