Overview

• President Trump announced a partnership to develop Pakistan’s “massive” oil reserves but the US and Pakistan have yet to publish the formal agreement or name a lead oil company.
• Cnergyico, Pakistan’s largest refinery, has contracted Vitol to import a one-million-barrel test cargo of US West Texas Intermediate crude, expected to arrive in October.
• The White House lowered US tariffs on Pakistani imports from 29% to 19%, a central incentive in the broader trade deal.
• Pakistan’s proven crude reserves amount to just 234–353.5 million barrels, and its estimated 9 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil may prove uneconomical to extract.
• Pakistan relies on foreign oil for over 85% of its needs and faces a circular energy-sector debt exceeding $13 billion, highlighting security, cost and investment challenges for domestic production.