By Ariba Shahid
(Reuters) – Pakistan paid for its first government-to-government import of Russian crude in Chinese currency, the South Asian country’s petroleum minister said on Monday, a significant shift in its U.S. dollar-dominated export payments policy.
The first cargo of discounted Russian crude oil arranged under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow arrived in Karachi on Sunday. It is currently being offloaded at the port.
Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik, talking to Reuters by phone, did not disclose the commercial details of the deal, including pricing or the discount that Pakistan received.
“We’ve run iterations of various product mixes, and in no scenario will the refining of this crude make a loss,” Malik said.
“We are very sure it will be commercially viable.”
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Gibran Peshimam; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
