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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s proposed $3.5 billion Falcon Oils Refinery & Storage Complex at Dhabeji, District Thatta, has cleared a key institutional hurdle after the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Secretariat endorsed the project and formally asked the Board of Investment (BoI) to place it before the Joint Working Group on Industrial Cooperation.
The development could mark one of the country’s largest privately sponsored industrial investments in recent years and represents a significant push towards attracting private-sector capital into Pakistan’s petroleum and energy infrastructure.
According to an Office Memorandum issued by the CPEC Secretariat at the Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives on August 24, 2026, Falcon Oils (Pvt) Limited has proposed a 100,000 barrels-per-day deep-conversion refinery, alongside a major petroleum storage complex and captive power generation facility.
The memorandum, numbered CPECS/IC(14)/601/2026, supports the project’s inclusion in the CPEC framework as a business-to-business initiative, in line with the second phase of CPEC and the governments’ stated emphasis on greater private-sector collaboration.
The proposed complex is expected to include 4 million tonnes of crude and petroleum-product storage capacity and a 50MW captive power plant. The refinery is planned to produce Euro-V-compliant fuels, potentially strengthening domestic refining capacity while reducing reliance on imported finished petroleum products.
The project has also secured an established Chinese technical and engineering partnership. According to the CPEC Secretariat’s memorandum, the feasibility study has been prepared by Xinjiang Petroleum Engineering Design Co Ltd, while EPC arrangements have been signed with CEEC-GEDI / CGGC.
The location at Dhabeji in Sindh’s coastal industrial belt, close to Karachi’s port facilities and crude-import infrastructure, is strategically positioned for a refinery designed around imported crude and domestic petroleum-product distribution.
For Pakistan, the project could have broader implications for the country’s energy security. By increasing domestic deep-conversion refining capacity, the complex is intended to help shift a portion of the petroleum import bill away from finished products towards crude oil, while providing substantial additional storage capacity.
Falcon Oils says the refinery and storage complex will be developed and financed entirely by private sponsors on a fully non-recourse basis, with no sovereign guarantee and no financial or other recourse to the Government of Pakistan.
The project is also expected to generate significant employment during the construction phase and create permanent jobs in Thatta district, potentially adding a major industrial anchor to the Dhabeji area.
The development was confirmed by Sirhaan Ahmed Khan, CEO of Falcon Oils, who described the CPEC Secretariat’s endorsement as an important step towards advancing the project through the formal CPEC industrial-cooperation mechanism.
With the Board of Investment now being asked to take the proposal to the Joint Working Group, the Falcon Oils project enters a potentially important next stage that could determine how the proposed refinery progresses within Pakistan’s broader CPEC industrialisation strategy.
If implemented, the 100,000-barrel-per-day facility would add a substantial new refining and storage asset to Pakistan’s energy infrastructure while demonstrating the role that privately financed, non-recourse projects could play in the next phase of Pakistan-China economic cooperation.
