India is ready to export products by road, rail and sea routes

Seeking to enhance the level of economic co-operation and extend a “friendly helping hand'' to its neighbour, India on Wednesday offered to export petrol, diesel and other petroleum products to Pakistan. Should there be an agreement, India could even build a pipeline to carry these products.

Guarantee

“India mooted the proposal of exporting petroleum products, including diesel and petrol, to Pakistan. They have shown interest.

In the next few weeks, we will prepare the related details,'' Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Jaipal Reddy, told journalists here after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Asim Hussain. India said it was ready to offer petroleum products supply to Pakistan and even build a pipeline to carry the same provided the neighbouring country gave long-term offtake guarantee.

Pakistan's existing refining capacity meets only half its total domestic requirement. On the other hand, India now exports almost one-fourth of its 185 million-tonne capacity.

Freight cost

While Pakistan allowed import of diesel from India, it still bans import of petrol and other petroleum products. None of the Indian refiners has, however, been able to export diesel to Pakistan as it gets the fuel at discounted price from Gulf nations like Kuwait.

“By allowing India to dock petrol and petroleum products, Pakistan's main advantage will be the savings in freight cost since several refineries in India are located close to the India-Pak border,'' Mr. Reddy said. Mr. Hussain said the Pakistani government did not import any petroleum products on its own since the entire imports were done by the private players.

A Joint Working Group on petroleum and petrochemical products had recently been constituted by the two countries to go into the specific details of facilitating trade in the sector which included infrastructure upgradation and augmentation of railways, customs facilitation, setting up of banking channels, etc. The first meeting of the group would happen at the earliest, Petroleum Minister Mr. Reddy said.