July 21, 2015
News
Work starts on 700-km Sino-Pak LNG pipeline
* Petroleum minister says Islamabad and Beijing will jointly fund project
OnlineISLAMABAD: Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday Pakistan has started construction work on a 700-kilometre pipeline to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from China.
Speaking to Voice of America (VoA), Abbasi said the project would be jointly funded by Pakistan and China. He also said that the Gwadar port would be used as the central hub for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), allowing western China to gain access to warm waters from Pakistan.
Abbasi said the funds from China, in relation to this project, would be beneficial to Pakistan for completion of the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project.
He said Pakistan has been trying to overcome its energy crisis by importing gas from Iran, adding that sanctions on Iran had resulted in difficulties in the way of inching closer to completing the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project. The CPEC, with a planned portfolio of projects totalling around $46 billion, would link Gwadar, Khuzdar and other areas on way to Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar along its central route.
The eastern route would connect Gwadar to Ratodero, Sukkur, and Karachi and upward to cities in Punjab, and from there to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Khunjerab Pass.
There have been security concerns over much of the plan, which relies on developing Gwadar — control of which was passed to a Chinese company in 2013. Linking Gwadar to the rest of Pakistan and the western Chinese city of Kashgar, 3,000 kilometres away, would involve major infrastructure work in Balochistan.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk