Pakistan mulls US oil imports to ease commerce imbalance, sources say

By Ariba Shahid

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistan is contemplating importing crude oil from the USA for the primary time to offset a commerce imbalance that triggered increased U.S. tariffs, based on a authorities supply straight concerned with the proposal and a refinery government.

International locations are scrambling to seek out methods to decrease their U.S. tariff burdens, together with shopping for extra U.S. oil and fuel, as President Donald Trump’s sweeping import duties rattle economies and markets.

“It is without doubt one of the merchandise being reviewed forward of a delegation leaving for the U.S. to speak about tariffs,” mentioned a authorities supply straight concerned with the proposal to the prime minister to purchase extra U.S. crude.

“It’s underneath lively consideration. We’re exploring alternatives and the construction to do it, however the PM has to approve it,” he mentioned.

Trump has imposed a ten% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S. and better duties on dozens of different international locations. Pakistan faces a 29% tariff resulting from a commerce surplus with the U.S. of about $3 billion, though that’s topic to the 90-day pause Trump introduced final week.

The refinery government advised Reuters that the concept is to purchase U.S. crude equal to Pakistan’s present imports of oil and refined merchandise, or about $1 billion of oil.

The sources declined to be named because the proposal is in its preliminary stage.

Pakistan’s petroleum ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Pakistan imported 137,000 barrels per day of crude in 2024, largely gentle grades from the Center East, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amongst its high suppliers, information from analytics agency Kpler confirmed. Oil imports amounted to $5.1 billion in 2024, information from Pakistan’s central financial institution confirmed.

In February, Saudi Arabia, via the Saudi Fund for Growth (SFD), prolonged a $1.2 billion financing facility to Pakistan for the import of oil merchandise for a yr. The SFD has supplied roughly $6.7 billion to Islamabad for oil merchandise since 2019.

Earlier than Trump’s partial tariff pause final week, Pakistan mentioned that it could ship a delegation to the U.S. within the coming weeks to barter new tariffs.

A number of large power importers want to purchase extra from the U.S. to ease commerce surpluses.

Final Friday, Indian state fuel agency GAIL India Ltd issued a young to purchase a 26% stake in a U.S. liquefied pure fuel (LNG) mission and import LNG, whereas Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have mentioned collaborating in an LNG mission within the U.S. state of Alaska.

(Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Modifying by Florence Tan, Tony Munroe and Saad Sayeed)