ISLAMABAD, January 20. /TASS/. Russia and Pakistan are going to finalize all the commercial and technical details for oil deliveries and the first supply of Russian oil can occur in March 2023, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik told reporters after the 8th meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation.

"I think we've agreed that by March we will conclude all of the commercial details and all of the technical details. Everything would be finalized by that deadline," the minister said.

"We have, clearly in our conversations, stated that we've sorted out all the problems of the transportation, of shipment, of insurance, of transaction structure. So I don't see any problem that in March we would see the finalization of this process," Malik noted, adding that Pakistan could cover up to 35% of its crude oil needs by finalizing the oil deal with Russia.

The first Russian oil supplies can arrive in Pakistan in March 2023, the top petroleum official said. "Of course," Malik stressed, replying to a question as to whether such a delivery could be coming this March.