Russia can send its natural gas to the markets of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TASS news agency.
Novak said that Russia can send gas either using the infrastructure of Central Asia or in a swap from the territory of Iran.
On December 5, Pakistan’s State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said that talks with Russian private firms are underway for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). He had added that Islamabad also engaged with Russia’s state LNG producers.
The state minister said that significant progress has been in talks over the pipeline projects with Moscow.
During talks on the gas pipeline projects, Moscow asked Pakistan to first honour its commitment to the flagship project of the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP) to be laid down from Karachi to Lahore, Punjab.
In their response, the Pakistani team proposed to change the model of the PSGP project. The Russian side said that the model of the project under GtG (government-to-government) arrangement had already been settled, save for some clauses of the shareholding agreement, which would soon be finalised.
Meanwhile, on September 18, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also said “Russia has proposed its gas pipelines infrastructure has been extended to Central Asian states which can be extended to Pakistan through Afghanistan to provide gas supplies”.