Pakistan has struggled to find a viable economic growth strategy for Gwadar,¡± he said. Any progress in Gwadar in the coming decade or two will be slow and incremental, he added. Local politicians consider the shifting of the oil refinery a huge loss for economic development in Gwadar.
Can Gwadar be an oil refinery?
¡°Gwadar can only be a feasible location of an oil refinery if a 600km oil pipeline is built connecting it with Karachi, the centre of oil supply of the country,¡± the official said. There is currently an oil pipeline from Karachi to the north of Pakistan, but not to the east.
Will Saudi Arabia build a refinery at Gwadar?
On June 2, Tabish Gauhar, the special assistant to Pakistan¡¯s prime minister on power and petroleum, said that Saudi Arabia would not build the refinery at Gwadar but would construct it along with a petrochemical complex somewhere near Karachi.
Will Saudi Arabia invest $10bn in oil refinery & petrochemical complex at Gwadar?
Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding to invest $10bn in an oil refinery and petrochemical complex at Gwadar in February 2019, during a visit by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to Pakistan. At the time, Islamabad was struggling with declining foreign exchange reserves.