ISLAMABAD - Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik on Monday announced that Russia had agreed to supply crude oil, petrol and diesel to Pakistan at discounted rates. While addressing a press conference here, the minister also announced that both the countries have started negotiations for inking a long-term contract for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). He further said that that Iran will donate LPG worth £2 million to Pakistan. It will reach Pakistan within the next 10 days to meet the gas demand supply gap in December and January. The Iranian LPG will be an addition to two million tons of LPG, being imported by stateowned gas companies during the winter season, the minister added. He said that Russia has agreed to provide crude at a discount price to Pakistan. “The price will be what it is giving to other countries and might be less than that,” Musadik added. The second understating reached with Russia is related to the supply of refine products to Pakistan, the minister said and added that Russia will provide both dieseland petrol to Pakistan at discounted rates. The third point raised with Russia was related to the import of LNG, the minister informed. “When we talked to the state owned companies of Russia they were out of LNG,” he stated. “The Russian government has arranged our meetings with its private companies and we have started our negotiations with those companies to get LNG on an urgent basis,” he said. The Russians are bringing new LNG by developing two new LNG producing facilities and they have invited us to start negotiations from now on making contracts for 2025-26 for LNG procurements, the minister said and added that negotiations on government-to-government basis in this regard have started. Musadik said that Pakistan has long term contracts with Qatar for LNG supply and keeping these agreements in mind, they would try to do new contracts on G -to-G basis. The minister informed that Iran will also donate LPG worth £2 million to Pakistan. The matter didn’t end here, the minister said adding, “We also discussed the pipeline projects with the Russian government and requested it to give us a little flexibility, as Pakistan is facing various constraints, and assured it that we are committed to executing these projects,” Russia has also expressed its keen interest in developing gas pipelines in Pakistan. “We have two agreements with Russia, one is the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP) and the other is an international gas pipeline,” he maintained. “We have fixed a deadline this time to give the arrangement a solid shape, the minister said adding that a Russian inter-governmental delegation headed by its energy minister would visit Pakistan in January 2023 to further discuss these avenues and give it a final shape for signing them into agreements. The minister said that while keeping in view our national interests, and like a nation of integrity, we will go forward to meet the country’s demands and we will solve the energy problems. He said that every year, Pakistan’s local gas reserves are depleting at the ratio of 8 to 9 percent, and this year despite this decline, more gas is available in November, December, and January compared to the previous year. He said that on daily basis we are tracking it. The government has directed the gas companies to ensure gas supply during cooking hours 6:00 am to 9:00 am; 12:00 am to 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.