OREANDA-NEWS. Moscow and Islamabad have agreed to build the Pakistani Stream gas pipeline, as the Russian Energy Ministry said.

The document amending the intergovernmental agreement of October 16, 2015 was signed by the head of the department Nikolai Shulginov and the Pakistani ambassador to Russia Shafkat Ali-Khan.

Shulginov said: "The signing will let our sides to start practical embodiment of this project in the nearest future, in this way encouraging the Pakistani side to consolidate its own energy safety and expand the use of natural gas, which is an environmentally friendly source of energy."

"Pakistani Stream" (former "North-South") with a length of 1,100 kilometers and a throughput capacity of up to 12.4 billion cubic meters per year should connect the terminal in the port of Karachi in the south of Pakistan with Lahore in the north.

The parties signed an agreement at the gavernmental level on the construction of the North-South gas pipeline back in 2015. In 2021, the countries decided to rename the joint project Pakistan Stream.

The ministry added that the implementation of the project will start in the near future, but the exact dates have not yet been named, as well as the estimated costs of the project.