Patriot forever
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Was it even practical? How would Saudi Arabia & UAE react if we stopped buying Oil from them? Admitted, at a 30% discount we could have saved around 15%-20% of forex spent on Oil imports (rest is transport + refining locally) which would be roughly USD 4.0 Billion. What about Saudi Arabia and UAE which regularly provide financial assistance, provide oil at deferred payments and have historically even written off oil debt by Pakistan?
In addition to the above, Pakistanis in UAE and Saudi Arabia remit around 50% of our USD (expected at USD 15 Billion in the current FY); can we jeopardize this? Can we afford the wrath of GCC and risk the employment of millions of Pakistanis in those countries?
Oil at 30% discount was also offered by Iran many years back, when we started building the IPI pipeline but that too got shelved primarily because of US and particularly because of GCC. Not everything is in the black and white.
No one was going to replace all the oil imports from middle East.
The oil bought from Russia would have been paid in either rubble or yuan. We have so much dollar debt which we run off to IMF for, it would not hurt a bit if some of the debt portfolio is in yuan or rubbles.
The deal is a crude swap deal with a 3rd country in the middle. My bet is if its refined products its China or if its crude its middle east. ( Remember Russia is apart of OPEC).
Just a reminder that a significant portion ( in fact the majority, correct me if I wrong) is refined products import like petrol/diesel. We already import huge amounts of refined products from China. No one from the Middle East ever complained.
Russia is now a sanctioned country and Pakistan exports can easily carve a few billion dollars in exports. Especially textiles.
This kind of opportunities don't come often.
Can you comprehend the significance of this deal?
I don't remember Iran crude being marketed for so cheap.
India took the opportunity now it will refine this crude and sell it at market price. India is already an exporter of refined petroleum products. That's the difference between them and us.
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