Pakistan received its second shipment of "discounted" Russian crude at the port of Karachi on Tuesday, per a news report.
The order aboard vessel ‘Clyde Noble’ comprised 55,000 tonnes of Urals-grade oil and is part of a deal agreed between Islamabad and Moscow in April after almost month-long negotiations on terms of the contract.
Under the deal, Russia agreed to supply 100,000 tonnes of crude to Pakistan. Islamabad would be using the Chinese yuan to pay for the Russian oil.
At the time, Pakistan’s energy minister Musadik Malik expressed hope that Russian crude shipments to Pakistan could reach a level of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) if the first transaction went through smoothly.
The first shipment carrying 45,000 tonnes of Russian crude arrived at the Karachi port on 12 June.
Russia reportedly dispatched 100,000 tonnes of crude bound for Pakistan in one go in April. The vessel with Russian crude docked at a port in Oman earlier this month because of the inability of the Pakistani port to accommodate heavy vessels.
The second shipment was originally scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on 20 June, but its delivery was delayed due to lack of storage space in tanks of Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), Islamabad’s state-backed enterprise.
Islamabad relies on crude imports to meet around 70 percent of its domestic requirements. The imported crude is refined by PRL, National Refinery Limited, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) and Byco Petroleum.
Pakistani refiners have said that they would mix the Urals grade oil with crude from Saudi Aramco, a process which could take up to two months.
The delivery of Russian crude to Pakistan comes against the backdrop of a severe balance of payments crisis in the south Asian country, which have resulted in shortage of essentials and driving inflation.
Like many developing nations in the Global South, Pakistan has been grappling with volatility in global commodity prices due to the Covid pandemic and the spillover effects of Ukraine crisis.