Rostec Starts Work on Pakistan Gas Pipeline

RT-Global Resources, a Rostec subsidiary, has commenced work on the North-South gas pipeline in Pakistan, TASS reported Friday.

The company is conducting surveys and engineering work along the pipeline route. 

In October, Moscow and Islamabad signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore. Last December, Rostec announced that its subsidiary, RT Global Resources, would be building oil and LNG pipelines and terminals in Pakistan with total cost of about $3 billion.

The Russian state owned firm will carry out the construction of the pipeline in Pakistan by mid-2020, TASS said.

The 1100 km long gas pipeline will link LNG terminals in the port of Karachi in the south of Pakistan with the city of Lahore in the north of the country.

The project will be implemented in three stages. In the first stage, which is expected to be complete by second quarter of 2018, the gas pipeline will be build. In the second stage, which is slated to be finish by second quarter of 2019, part of compressor stations will be completed.

In the third stage, by the second quarter of 2020, all compressor stations will be commissioned bringing the pipeline to its full capacity, which is 12.4 billion cubic meters a year, TASS stated.

Head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov said that the selection for contractors to build the pipeline in Pakistan will be held in 2016. 

Pakistan’s state gas supplying company ISGAL will act as a partner customer in the project and will pay gas transportation services. In its turn, the government of Pakistan will issue a sovereign guarantee for project financing.