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of June had bounced back to its normal level, 2021-2022 if the country is able to escape the
after falling by around 10-15% in April and May. worst of the pandemic going forward.
“In the Indian market there was some slow- Meanwhile, the CEO of leading gas importer
down, but the situation is not as bad as last year,” Petronet LNG, A K Singh, told a separate news
he said, noting that demand had collapsed by briefing that its 17.5mn tonne per year (tpy)
50% during last year’s national lockdown. Jain Dahej terminal in Gujarat State was operating at
added that demand could grow by 6-8% in fiscal 87% of capacity.™

Saudi shifts site of planned Pakistan refinery

PROJECTS & STATE-OWNED Saudi Aramco will no longer issues being resolved within the next 15
COMPANIES build an oil refinery at Pakistan’s deepwater port years.
of Gwadar in Balochistan Province, shifting the The official suggested that Riyadh had been
facility to Karachi alongside a new petrochemi- irked that Pakistan had agreed a similar-sized
cal complex. energy investment package with Moscow,
In early 2019, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince though the projects covered by that deal are also
Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) pledged around yet to make progress.
$20bn of investment in Pakistan’s energy and Meanwhile, a company hired to carry out a
mining sector, which included $10bn to build feasibility study on the Gwadar unit said it had
the 250,000-300,000 barrel per day (bpd) green- advised its Saudi client against proceeding.
field refinery. Also speaking to Nikkei, Arif Rafiq, president
Aramco had been due to supply the bulk of Vizier Consulting, said: “Saudi interest has
of the crude feedstock for the facility, which is shifted closer to Karachi, which makes sense,
likely be developed in a joint venture with Islam- given its proximity to areas of high demand and
abad-owned Pakistan State Oil. existing logistics networks.”
Speaking to Nikkei Asia, a Pakistani official Gwadar is under development by Beijing as
said that the development of the refinery was part of the so-called China Pakistan Economic
never feasible. “Gwadar can only be a feasible Corridor, designed to connect China’s western
location of an oil refinery if a 600-km oil pipe- Xinjiang region with the Arabian Sea.
line is built connecting it with Karachi, the Pakistan suffers from an oil products short-
centre of oil supply of the country.” Karachi is fall – the capacity of the six existing refineries,
currently only connected to the north of Paki- including one part-owned by the Abu Dhabi
stan, not the east. government, stands at 400,000 bpd against
He added: “Without a pipeline, the trans- domestic consumption of around 600,000 bpd.
port of refined oil from Gwadar [via road The country’s upstream production is run-
in oil tankers] to consumption centres in ning at just under 100,000 bpd and Aramco is
the country will be very expensive,” adding already the second-largest crude supplier after
that he does not see Gwadar’s infrastructure the UAE.™

Week 24 17•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7