ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday signed a five-billion-dollar agreement to build an oil refinery near the port city of Karachi, the prime minister's office announced.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the memorandum of understanding signalled Pakistan's biggest-ever foreign investment.
The oil refinery is to be built at Khalifa Point in southern Baluchistan province, near Karachi.
It would handle 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a day under a joint arrangement between Abu Dhabi's state-managed International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and Pakistan's Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARC).
Aziz said it was a "historic day" for Pakistan, whose economic growth of around seven percent a year had created a surge in demand for energy.
He said the Khalifa refinery would meet domestic demand and cater for the international market, while its construction and operation, including allied infrastructure projects, would create thousands of jobs.
UAE Energy Minister Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli was also at the signing ceremony at Aziz's offices in Islamabad.
Under the agreement, IPIC would take a 74 percent stake in the refinery, with Pakistan's PARC holding the remaining 26 percent.
The signing took place in the midst of a political crisis in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
