Iran may revive coastal refinery project
Thursday, October 25, 2007
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: In a major development, Tehran has indicated Islamabad that it will reinitiate work on Pak-Iran coastal refinery at Khalifa point near Hub, Balochistan, which was earlier shelved some years ago because of the dispute on the rate of return.
During recent talks on Pak-Iran gas pipeline, Islamabad invited Tehran to start work on the project. Iranian authorities showed willingness to revive the project keeping in view the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approval of Khalifa Coastal Refinery, which the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi is setting up, an official said.
We have communicated to Iranian authorities that the tax exemption package including 20 years tax holiday, which has been given to IPIC for establishing the Khalifa coastal refinery at a cost of $4 billion to $5 billion, will be extended to Tehran for setting up the Pak-Iran refinery.
He said: We have a surplus of 700 to 800 acres of land at Khalifa Point which we have offered to Tehran for Pak-Iran refinery as free hold lease.
He explained that land up to 1,000 acres at Khalifa Point will be provided to the joint venture of IPIC and Pak-Arab refinery as free hold lease without charging any rent.
The official said that earlier Pak-Iran refinery could not initiate as than was insisted to ensure the reasonable rate of return which Islamabad could not respond positively.
Now the government has asked Iran to establish the refinery on commercial considerations as we refused to ensure guaranteed rate of return.
Iranians have also been told that the government has also denied IPIC to ensure the guaranteed rate of return for Khalifa coastal refinery.
The official mentioned that when the Pak-Iran refinery project was earlier conceived some years back, it was planned that the said project would be located at Khalifa Point, with capacity to refine 6 million tonnes of Iranian heavy crude.
As far as the Khalifa Coastal Refinery is concerned, the official said that this refinery in the first quarter of 2011 with capacity to refine 200,000 to 300,000 barrel of crude oil per day.
The IPIC and other UAE government-owned companies equity would be 74 per cent and PARCO which will be operator of the refinery is allowed to take initially 26 per cent equity with the option to offload up to 20 per cent of their shares to parties with the approval of Pakistan.