Government and industry officials of Pakistan and India have concluded 2 days of talks in New Delhi on the possibility of trade in oil products.
Pakistan has removed oil products from a list of goods for which overland imports from India are prohibited. But restrictions remain in place on types of transportation allowed for specific products. Other remaining problems include the lack of direct courier service between the countries, which hamper trade documentation.
At a March meeting in Pakistan with Indian government and industry representatives, Pakistani officials expressed interest in importing heating oil and diesel.
At the New Delhi meeting, representatives of HPCL/Mittal Energy Ltd. (HMEL) and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOCL) offered to study the feasibility of building pipelines to carry oil products to Lahore, Pakistan.
HMEL in March commissioned its 180,000-b/d Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda, Punjab, about 100 miles from Lahore (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2012). HMEL is a joint venture of state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Mumbai, and Mittal Energy Investments Pte. Ltd., Singapore.
IOCL operates a pipeline that carries products from its 240,000-b/d Panipat refinery in Haryana to Jalandhar, Punjab, about 75 miles from Lahore.
