The press release issued on Thursday evening said that the fifth meeting of the Joint Technical Committee of the Pak Stream Gas Pipeline Project was held in Islamabad from 16 to 18 November 2021. “The respective delegations held extensive consultations during these discussions. The parties expressed satisfaction that important outstanding issues had been clarified in the shareholders` agreement. The discussions took place in a favourable environment characterized by mutual agreement, consensus and unanimity of views, which led to excellent progress and a very encouraging advance on the shareholders` agreement. The two sides also discussed the outline of the facilitation agreements, project financing, implementation structure, spV formation, contractual strategy and mechanism for identifying the PMC and FEED contract. In addition, site surveys in Pakistan and visits to production sites in the Russian Federation were also reviewed. The Russian side will arrange the financing of foreign currency components through supplier credits or typical project financing to cover imported items such as steel, consulting firms, pipelines and related products and materials that are not available in Pakistan. The pipeline concession contract will remain in effect for 25 to 30 years. The size of the pipeline has been agreed with a diameter of 56 inches to meet the energy needs of the next 30 to 40 years in the country, which will ensure a free gas flow of 700 to 800 million cubic feet per day (mmfcd), which can reach 2,000 mmcfd with compressors. As part of efforts to combat energy scarcity in Pakistan. The Pakistani and Russian governments have agreed to examine the feasibility of building a 1,100 km gas pipeline from Port Qasim to Karachi to Lahore at an estimated cost of between $2.5 billion and $3 billion by the end of 2023.
The project is called the Pakstream Gas Pipeline Project, which is commonly known as the North-South Gas Project. It will allow LNG imports from gas producers such as Oman, Qatar, Russia, the United States and Australia to supply gas to customers inside Pakistan, such as power plants, factories and cities. The letter reportedly angered Russia as Moscow reviews the letter seeking guarantees from Russia`s designated entity. The EPC contractor amounts to a flagrant violation of the IGA and the heads of conditions. And no one knows how much power the Petroleum Division has the power to initiate the renegotiation of an intergovernmental agreement without the input or approval of the federal Cabinet. The heads of mandate (HoT) of the shareholders` agreement were signed on Thursday after four days of discussions, dawn news reported. The two sides also signed the minutes of the third meeting of the Russian-Pakistani Joint Technical Committee (JTC) to implement the Pakstream gas pipeline project, commonly known as the North-South gas project. The negotiations followed the intergovernmental agreement between Pakistan`s designated entity, Inter State Gas System (ISGS), and Russia`s designated entity, PAKSTREAM LLC, and a draft shareholders` agreement was made available to the ISGS for comment and discussion, on which the ISGS hesitates. In fact, all the specific points of discussion regarding the shareholders` agreement should have been addressed by ISGS, rather than by the Oil Division writing to its Russian counterpart, including bypassing all state standards and procedures. work to refine it to give it a final shape.
He said the shareholders` agreement document is over 100 pages long with several aspects that are of commercial and strategic importance. He also said the talks remained very positive and on track, and said there had been lengthy discussions on many aspects of risk assessment and mitigation. The next steps will be the signing of the shareholders` agreement, financial agreement, gas transmission agreement and lender agreement, in which the Russian side will finalize the initial technical design (FEED) and the Pakistani side will arrange the dollar financing of the local currency component against the development of the Cess gas infrastructure worth Rs 321 billion. Russia sent its delegation on 16 September. November in Islamabad, after commenting on a new request from the oil department and requesting a renegotiation of issues already settled for talks on the participation agreement and facilitation agreement. .