Govt pitches Gwadar as gas transport hub amid Ukraine war
The government is persuading Europe and China to route their gas supplies from Central Asian nations through Gwadar to ensure their energy security in a changed global environment in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik told journalists on Wednesday that Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — were the global energy capitals. However, because these countries are landlocked, their resources remained trapped and could not be exported to the world, he said. The minister said the government had been engaged with Central Asia, European nations, Turkiye, China and even the United States to promote Pakistan as a natural trading hub for natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), more to the economic advantage of those countries as well as benefits flowing to Pakistan as a smaller partner. “We have talked about this with our allies and friendly countries,” he added. He said Islamabad had also recently discussed these options with the leadership of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan — the latter has been pursuing a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline with limited physical progress amid challenges to international financing avenues and the Afghan situation. He said Pakistan had also discussed this with European Commission’s task force on energy.