UAE to invest $5 bln in oil refinery project in Pakistan: envoy

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will invest five billion dollars in an oil refinery project in Pakistan, an Arab News report said.

Talks over the project between Pakistan and the UAE have almost completed and the project would be launched by the end of this year, the report said.

UAE Ambassador in Islamabad Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al-Zaabi in an interview told the publication: “We are going to launch very soon one of the biggest investments in a refinery project in Hub.”

“It is going to be a $5 billion investment between Mubadala Petroleum Company of Abu Dhabi, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (Parco) and OMV [OMV Pakistan Exploration Gesellschaft].”

The oil refinery project would have a capacity of 2,50,000 to 3,00,000 barrels per day, the UAE envoy said.

“This project will show the strength of UAE-Pakistan relations and how the UAE is focusing on investment in and future of Pakistan,” the ambassador was quoted as saying.

The UAE envoy said that the two sides were “finalising the minute details of the refinery project”.

Pakistan’s Minister for Power and Petroleum in May said that the ground breaking of an oil refinery project, a joint venture of PARCO and the United Arab Emirates,  will be performed by end of this year.

The refinery would have output capacity of 250,000 barrels per day, he added.