Pakistan considers US oil imports to alleviate trade imbalances, said the source
Pakistan is considering importing crude oil from the United States for the first time offset the imbalance of trade that triggers higher US tariffs, according to government sources directly involved with refinery proposals and executives.
Countries scramble to find ways to reduce the burden of their US tariffs, including buying more US oil and gas, as a import duty and import market President Donald Trump.
“This is one of the products reviewed before the delegation leaving for the US to discuss tariffs,” said a source of government who was directly involved with a proposal to the Prime Minister to buy more US crude oil.
“This is being considered actively. We are exploring opportunities and structures to do it, but PM must agree,” he said.
Trump has imposed a 10% base line tariff on all imports to the US and higher tasks in dozens of other countries. Pakistan faced a 29% tariff because of a trading surplus with a US of around $ 3 billion, even though it was subject to the 90 -day pause announced by Trump last week.
The refinery executive told Reuters that the idea was to buy the US that is equivalent to oil imports and processed Pakistani products at this time, or around $ 1 billion of oil.
The source refused to be called a proposal in the early stages.
The Pakistani Ministry of Oil did not immediately respond to comments requests.
Pakistan imported 137,000 barrels per day of crude oil in 2024, most of the lightweight classes from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among their top suppliers, data from the KPler’s analytic company showed. Oil imports amounted to $ 5.1 billion in 2024, data from the Pakistan central bank showed.
In February, Saudi Arabia, through Saudi funds for development (SFD), extended the $ 1.2 billion financing facility to Pakistan to import oil products for a year. SFD has provided around $ 6.7 billion for Islamabad for oil products since 2019.
Before Trump’s partial tariff break last week, Pakistan said that they would send a delegation to the US in the coming weeks to negotiate new rates.
Some major energy importers want to buy more than the US to ease the trade surplus.
Last Friday, the Indian Gail State gas company Gail India Ltd issued a tender to buy 26% of shares in the US Liquid Natural Gas Project (LNG) and imported LNG, while Japan, South Korea and Taiwan had discussed participating in the LNG project in Alaska AS.
Source: Reuters
