Pakistan's largest oil refiner Cnergyico has ordered a second shipment of US crude after finding its debut purchase commercially viable, its vice chairman said on Wednesday, paving the way for more imports.
Vitol will deliver a one million-barrel cargo of West Texas Light (WTL) crude in November under Cnergyico's term supply arrangement with the European trader, Vice Chairman Usama Qureshi said.
"This is our second cargo, our trading team evaluated various crude for November and found WTL's gross refining margin to be slightly better than (Gulf) crude," Qureshi said.
"If economics remain favourable, we intend to keep importing."
The decision comes weeks after the first-ever US crude cargo for Pakistan set sail from Houston on the Suezmax tanker Pegasus, chartered by Vitol, ship-tracking data from Kpler showed. The ship is due to dock in Karachi in late October.
Pakistan signed a landmark trade deal with Washington in August that paved the way for US energy imports in exchange for lower tariffs on Pakistani exports. President Donald Trump has pushed foreign partners to boost US oil purchases under such agreements.
The country has until now sourced almost all its crude from Middle Eastern suppliers.
Cnergyico, which operates Pakistan's only single-point mooring terminal capable of handling large tankers, is considering more US purchases of at least one million barrels if market conditions stay supportive, Qureshi said.
However, a rise in shipping costs and higher spot premiums for West Texas Intermediate crude, a benchmark US crude stream, have threatened to shut the arbitrage for November-loading US crude cargoes to Asia.
Cnergyico also plans to expand capacity with a second offshore terminal and long-term upgrades, Qureshi said, betting on a rise in domestic fuel demand.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi and Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore; Additional reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Florence Tan and Christian Schmollinger)
