Pakistan hopes for Gazprom's help to develop onshore and offshore fields

ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 9 (Interfax) - - Pakistan hopes for help from Russia's Gazprom to develop onshore and offshore oil and gas fields, Pakistani Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said during a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPMGF-2025).

"Prime Minister [Shehbaz] Sharif and the entire government have committed to carry out reforms to ensure greater stability for our gas market, together with our friends, such as Russia, and my comrade [addressing Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller], who is absolutely right. We look forward to his visit to Pakistan to help us develop opportunities to tap our exploration potential [for gas] on land and on the country's shelf," he said.

Malik said Pakistan was an underexplored market where hydrocarbons were concerned. Investments in upstream are not enough today, so the country has to import gas from many countries. "This is a big challenge for the government. The gas sector's stability and energy security are at risk," he said.

He said another task of the country's leadership was to make gas exports more flexible, to move away from long-term take-or-pay contracts. "There are four seasons in Pakistan: it can be very hot here, and in winter the temperature drops below zero, so we need supply flexibility," he said.

Malik also recalled that Pakistan had one of the longest gas pipeline networks, about 200,000 km, and gas for households was subsidized by the state. "But these subsidies are imposed on prices in other sectors, which prevents the wider use of gas as a fuel. So we are trying to achieve deregulation, to exclude cross-subsidization," he said.

Gazprom and Pakistani Oil and Gas Development Co. signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the PMGF-2025 on October 8.