KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) have agreed to keep diesel and jet fuel flowing from Kuwait to Pakistan and to look at working together across the wider energy business, PSO said on Thursday.
The understanding came during a visit to Kuwait by a PSO delegation led by its chief executive, Jowad Ahmed Cheema, who met KPC’s chief executive and deputy chairman, Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah. He also met Sheikh Khaled Ahmed Al-Sabah, who heads international marketing at KPC and runs the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company.
The two sides agreed to revise the terms of their existing supply deals in line with current market conditions. The partnership between the two state companies goes back about 50 years.
KPC will also use Pakistan’s storage and port facilities under the government’s recently revised Customs Bonded Storage Policy. The policy lets imported petroleum products be held in bonded storage and then either sold in Pakistan or re-exported to other markets in the region. The remaining paperwork is expected to be completed soon with the Pakistani departments involved.
The talks also covered shipping, refining, base oil supplies, and lubricant marketing, as well as possible KPC investment in Pakistan’s gas, refining, storage, and logistics sectors.
“PSO is committed to translating these discussions into tangible outcomes over the next 50 years,” Cheema said. He said KPC’s interest in Pakistan’s storage and port infrastructure offered a chance to strengthen energy security, promote regional trade, and attract investment.
The agreement comes as Pakistan works to secure fuel supplies while the Iran war disrupts Gulf shipping. The war has already cost Pakistan $387 million in exports to the Gulf, the commerce secretary said this week. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Kuwaiti counterpart welcomed their ratified defence pact at COP31 on Wednesday.
At home, the government cut diesel by Rs7 to Rs364 a litre from Thursday, its second cut in a row. PSO is also set to take over setting LPG prices with SSGC under a new plan.
