Govt offers Pak to export petro products

India today expressed desire to export petrol and diesel to Pakistan and said its domestic refineries may look at the possibility of building a pipeline if the neighbouring nation provides long-term offtake guarantee.

"India mooted the proposal of exporting petro products and petrol to Pakistan. They have shown interest. In the next few weeks, we will prepare the detail," Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy told reporters after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Asim Hussain.

Pakistan's existing refining capacity meets only half of its total domestic requirement. On the other hand, India now exports almost one-fourth of its 185 million tonne capacity.

While Pakistan allowed import of diesel from India, it still bans import of petrol and other petroleum products. None of the Indian refiners has, however, been able to export diesel to Pakistan as it gets the fuel at discounted price from Gulf nations like Kuwait.

By allowing India to dock petrol and petroleum products, Pakistan's main advantage will be the savings in freight cost since several refineries in India are located close to the India-Pak border, Reddy said.

India said it is ready to export such products by road, rail and by sea routes and if the Pakistani government offers a long-term offtake agreement, its refineries would consider constructing product pipelines.

"Indian refineries would be willing to look at the feasibility of constructing product pipelines to Pakistan provided long-term guarantees for product offtake can be given by Pakistan," Reddy said.

Hussain said the Pakistani government does not import any petroleum products on its own since the entire imports are done by the private players.