East Sea Group Limited has planned to invest $4.5 billion in Pakistan to build a refinery with annual oil processing capacity of 8 million tons.

It was disclosed by East Sea Group CEO Fang Yulong, who is also Senior Vice President of Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI), during a briefing at the PCJCCI Secretariat on Thursday.

“We will build Gwadar Petroleum Storage and Transportation Trading Centre; this project will attract world’s major oil trading companies to Gwadar Port,” he announced.

Fang revealed that the company would place at least six ships of crude oil for blending and trans-shipment at Gwadar Port with a total of 2 million tons per month. It will provide oil to major oil-producing countries in the Middle East for sales and blending services.

The CEO stressed that the development of energy industry was an important catalyst for the transformation of economic structure. “It can not only stimulate and guarantee the development of various downstream industries, but will also further reduce the trade deficit and increase foreign exchange reserves.”

He called Gwadar “the throat of several important maritime routes from Africa, Europe, the Red Sea, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to East Asia and the Pacific”.

Its strategic location close to major oil-producing countries and shipping routes and good political relations with oil-producing states make the port a potential energy and petro-chemical trade centre.