By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan has approved in principle the structure recommended by two Russian companies Eurasian Pipeline Consortium and Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) for the construction of $2 billion North-South Gas Pipeline, according to media reports.
it was also decided at 7th JCC session on the North South Gas Pipeline recently held in the capital Islambad, to sign the commercial agreement for the pipeline by April 2020 while the ground breaking of the project to be held in June or July this year.
At the JCC , Russian delegation was led by Deputy Energy Minister, Anatoli Tikhinov while Pakistan’s side was headed by Petroleum Division Secretary Mian Asad Hayaud Din. The officials of both the ISGL and Russian JV were also present at the meeting.
During the meeting, Pakistan in principle approved the Russian Joint Venture consisting of Eurasian Pipeline Consortium and Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE). It was also decided that Pakistan will get the opinion from the Law division within one month which will be followed by the pricing and commercial agreement of the project. A protocol in this regard has also been signed.
In 2015, Pakistan and Russia had signed an agreement for laying a pipeline for the transportation of RLNG from Karachi to Lahore through the conduit, called the North-South pipeline. The Russian government had nominated RT Global Resources for the North South project and the completion time for the project was 2017.Since ROSTEC the mother company of RT Global was facing US sanctions , Pakistan had asked Russia to provide sanction free company for the execution of the project. Following Pakistan’s request Russia had provided new consortium including TMK and JSC Zarubezhneft for the execution of the project, English newspaper Daily Nation reported.
A protocol has been signed and the commercial agreement will be signed between Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Limited and Russian Joint Venture in April. The pipeline will be laid on build, operate and transfer basis and will have the capacity to transport 1.2 bcfd RLNG from two existing LNG terminals.
