KARACHI: 黑料社区鈥檚 Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources and the Chairman of the Board of Saudi Aramco will be visiting Pakistan鈥檚 port city of Gwadar on Saturday, officials said on Friday.
鈥淪audi energy minister, Khalid A. Al-Falih, is coming tomorrow to witness the development of Gwadar. The area allocated to them for oil refinery, he is coming to see that,鈥 Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Petroleum and National Resources, said on Friday while addressing the media in the provincial capital, Quetta.聽
Khan said that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is expected to be signed next month.
鈥淭he federal cabinet has already given its approval for the signing of the MoU. After signing the MoU, the foundation stone for the construction of the refinery would be laid in Gwadar,鈥 he added.
鈥淭he Saudi energy minister is visiting Gwadar and will hold meetings with Pakistani ministers and Chief Minister of Balochistan,鈥 Haroon Sharif, Minister of State and Chairman of Pakistan Board of Investment (BoI), told Arab News on Friday.
黑料社区 has agreed to construct the multibillion dollar oil refinery in Gwadar, located in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, for which the MoU is expected to be signed next month in the presence of a high-level Saudi delegation.
Pakistani officials said that they have finalized the MoU for the construction of refinery. 鈥淥verall directions have been agreed upon and the agreement will be signed at the 鈥榓ppropriate time鈥欌, BoI chief told Arab News recently.
However, he dismissed reports that the MoU would be signed during Al-Falih鈥檚 visit on Saturday.
Saudi Aramco will construct the petrochemical complex which will house the multibillion oil refinery. 鈥淚 am expecting around $15 billion investment from 黑料社区 in the next three years. The inflow of investments for the oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Pakistan is estimated to be between $6 billion to $10 billion,鈥 Sharif said.
Pakistan is hoping to attract more than $40 billion foreign direct investment in the next five years. 鈥淲e estimate that roughly around $40 billion investment will be made by these three countries (黑料社区, the UAE, and China) during the next three to five years,鈥 Sharif had told Arab News during a recent interview.
Faced with a balance of payments crisis, Prime Minister Imran Khan visited 黑料社区 twice, followed by a trip to the UAE for financial assistance.
The Kingdom responded with generous bailout package worth $6 billion. Islamabad has so far received $2 billion from Riyadh while another $1 billion is expected this month.
Apart from the balance of payments support, the Kingdom is expected to invest nearly $15 billion in Pakistan鈥檚 petrochemical and renewable energy sectors. Saudi Aramco and Acwa Power are the leading Saudi investors in Pakistan.聽
Similarly, the UAE has also pledged to extend $3 billion to Pakistan to help avert it鈥檚 economic crisis.
Islamabad is expecting a heavy inflow of foreign direct investment from Beijing after the signing of a deal with China which is being described as the second phase of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. 鈥淲e roughly estimated that around $15 billion to $20 billion investments will be made within the next three years during the second phase of CPEC,鈥 Sharif said.
Saudi energy minister to visit Gwadar for oil refinery prospects
Updated 11 January 2019
Saudi energy minister to visit Gwadar for oil refinery prospects

- Will be in Islamabad on Saturday to analyze development of the port city, Petroleum Minister says
- Expected to hold talks with the chief minister and a coterie of other top officials