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Iran-Pak refinery project Sponsors agree to re-set some crucial clauses

of agreement

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The sponsors of Iran-Pak Refinery project have agreed to re-set some of the existing agreement's crucial clauses in the backdrop of prevalent crude price in the international market.

The margins for the refineries have come down drastically all over the world necessitating appropriate revision of the rate of return to the IPR, sources on Wednesday said.

The project came under threadbare discussion during the recently concluded visit of a Pakistani team to Tehran, led by Razzaq Dawood, the minister of industries and production. The minister assured the Iranian oil minister of Pakistan government's keen interest and seriousness with regard to the project.

Sources said that both the sponsoring partners of the joint venture projects were now in drawing up the economics of the project anew. After the ongoing vacations of Nauroze an Iranian delegation is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan to put heads together with the Pakistani counterparts.

The guaranteed internal rate of return had remained alone of contention between the two countries. But the new crude price scenario would help the resolving the issue with a fresh mindset, sources said.

Various barriers and hurdles have also been set aside by the two sides paving the way for the earliest possible implementation of the project, they said. Signing of an agreement with the Iranians for importing 35,000 tonnes of petroleum products will work well in building confidence.

The 1.15 billion dollars project would be designed to pump six million tonne Iranian crude. High speed diesel (HSD) would constitute 60 percent of the net product.