Pakistan Buys First U.S. Oil Cargo After Trade Deal

Pakistani refiner Cnergyico will import Pakistan’s first U.S. crude oil cargo in October following the trade and energy cooperation deal the two countries signed earlier this week.

Cnergyico will import on October 1 million barrels of American crude via top commodity trader Vitol, Usama Qureshi, vice chairman of the biggest refiner in oil-import-dependent Pakistan, told Reuters on Friday.

The cargo of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is set to load from Houston in August and arrive in Pakistan in late October, the executive said.

“This is a test spot cargo under our umbrella term agreement with Vitol. If it is commercially viable and available, we could import at least one cargo per month,” Qureshi added.

The cargo will not be for resale and will help diversify Pakistan’s predominantly Middle Eastern supply of crude oil.

This first U.S. crude purchase by Pakistan follows the trade deal announced earlier this week.

Following months of negotiations, the United States and Pakistan this week signed a trade deal that will involve the joint development of Pakistan’s oil resources.

“We have just concluded a Deal with the Country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive Oil Reserves,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media.

“We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this Partnership. Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling Oil to India some day!” Trump also said on Truth Social.

Pakistan is an importer of energy, but it may hold substantial reserves of oil and gas in shale formations.

This year, Pakistan also updated its oil and gas reserves estimate, revising the oil reserves part upwards by 23% from a year earlier, to 238 million barrels. The revision came on the back of seven fields where discoveries were made in the period.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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