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Trump’s Pakistan Oil Deal: Hype vs. Reality

24 0
wednesday

On July 30-31, 2025, Donald Trump, the president of the US, declared a trade agreement with Pakistan. This deal focuses on a joint effort to explore what he termed the massive oil reserves of Pakistan and even hinted at the possibility of Pakistan selling oil to India shortly. This came amidst worsening US-India trade disputes, such as new American duties on Indian coal, steel, and other products—linked with energy policy and foreign policy as well.

By 2016, the reserves of crude oil in Pakistan were about 353 million barrels, a position that places it between 50th and 55th in the world in terms of proven reserves. Pakistan is heavily reliant on imports, as its current daily oil consumption stands at about 550,000 barrels, and production has been at an approximate 60,000 barrels/day (~10 % of needs).

The reason why Trump may be making that claim is probably due to two non-commercial but US government evaluations:

Both of them expressly emphasize that these are not proven reserves and are based on very little geological modeling, not field drilling.

The commercial-scale wells have not yet been drilled in the shale formations of

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