Pakistan paid for its first government-to-government import of Russian crude in Chinese yuan on Monday, signaling a dramatic shift in the South Asian country’s U.S. dollar-dominated export payments strategy.
On Sunday, the first cargo of cheap Russian crude oil arranged under a new accord between Islamabad and Moscow arrived in Karachi.
It is being unloaded at the dock right now.
In a phone interview with Reuters, Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik refused to reveal the business aspects of the contract, such as pricing or the discount that Pakistan obtained.
“We’ve run iterations of various product mixes, and the refining of this crude will never make a loss,” Malik added.
“We are very sure it will be commercially viable.”
