Petroleum Ministry’s official confirms that LPG came from Central Asian country, not Russia

A consignment containing 5,000 tons of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) from Uzbekistan has arrived in Pakistan via Torkham International Border Crossing with Afghanistan and is awaiting to receive customs’ clearance, an official from Pakistan’s petroleum ministry confirmed on Wednesday.

The official, who chose not to be named, told The Khorasan Diary (TKD) that the gas was being transported into the country via tankers belonging to a private company.

“A private company has brought this LPG [into Pakistan] and it has not come from Russia,” she revealed.

Meanwhile, an officer at the private company – the Lahore-based Epic Energy Limited which is responsible for transporting LPG across Pakistan – said the country has entered into an agreement with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia to import LPG via Chaman and Torkham Borders.

“Under the deal, the first consignment, containing 5,000 tons of LPG, has arrived in Pakistan from Uzbekistan, not Russia via the Torkham border and is awaiting customs clearance there,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, told TKD over the phone.

He added that the gas was brought to the border crossing via 10 tankers belonging to his company, adding that another consignment, containing 5,000 tons of LPG, had been transported previously through the Wesh-Chaman border crossing, Balochistan.

Tankers carrying LPG awaiting customs clearance at Pak- Afghan Torkham border, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

“The current consignment from Uzbekistan first reached the Torghundi border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan where our company has set up a storage and decanting plant,” he said.

From there, he explained, the LPG was first transferred to tankers belonging to Afghan companies and transported to the Torkham Border. “Once the tankers reached the Torkham crossing, we transferred the LPG into our own tankers to be brought into Pakistan, but since this was the first time, the customs clearance became an issue and our tankers have been stranded there till now.”

The official further added that another consignment, containing 10,000 tons of LPG from Russia, will also arrive in Pakistan within the next 10 to 15 days.

Officials of the Pakistan Customs told TKD that the tankers could not receive clearance as documentation was underway.

“It is the first-ever LPG consignment that has arrived via the Torkham border crossing, so none could be cleared yet as importers are in the process of completing its documentation.”

The LPG consignment arrived in the country after the first cargo of Russian crude oil, weighing 45,142 metric tons, reached Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Sunday.

The crude oil is being transported to a refinery for processing.