Claim: Saudi Arabia will build an oil refinery in Gwadar, Pakistan.
Fact: The development is not recent. Saudi Arabia publicly discussed plans to build an oil refinery in Gwadar, Pakistan in 2019.
On 23 September 2025, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted (archive), “#BREAKING Saudi Arabia to build a $10B oil refinery in Gwadar, Pakistan.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search for any recent announcements regarding Saudi Arabia’s plans to build an oil refinery in Gwadar but found no credible reports to support the claim. However, earlier reports dating as far back as 2018 mention the kingdom’s plans to build a refinery in Gwadar thus contradicting the viral claim’s assertion that the news is recent (“breaking”).
The earliest report found was from October 2018. Then Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced Saudi Arabia had agreed in principle to invest and set up a refinery in Gwadar. The Government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account even posted the news in 2018, writing, ”Saudi Arabia has decided to establish an oil refinery in #Gwadar. This was stated by a visiting Saudi delegation at a meeting with Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan in Islamabad.”
These announcements were followed by the Saudi energy minister’s public statement announcing plans for a 10 billion dollar refinery in Gwadar in January 2019.
By 2020, both countries were reportedly in the planning phases of the refinery, with the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) Director General Shahzeb Khan Kakar disclosing, “The land allocation process for the oil refinery is underway with the provincial government’s revenue department in Quetta.” Kakar further stated that he believed the allocation would be completed within a couple of months.
More recently, in 2023, Dawn wrote that four Pakistani petroleum companies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate the 10 billion dollar Saudi investment and provide Saudi investors with a sense of security about such a sizeable investment.
Although there have been no recent updates on the construction of the refinery, it is presumably still under development as no reports suggest that the project has come to a halt. Thus, Soch Fact Check finds the claim to be misleading as this project was first announced in 2018.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim on X here and here.
Conclusion: While it is true that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are working together to build an oil refinery in Gwadar, Pakistan, the news is not recent. Announcements regarding this refinery were first made in 2018.
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