Pakistan, Sept. 25 -- Pakistani oil refineries began signing long-awaited agreements with a government-designated entity on Thursday that will allow them to proceed with around $6 billion in planned upgrades, moving a years-long effort to modernize the country's aging refining infrastructure into the implementation stage.

The agreements provide the contractual framework for investments by Pakistan's existing refineries to modernize their plants, produce cleaner Euro-V fuels, reduce lower-value furnace oil output and replace some imported petroleum products with domestic production.

The move is expected to reduce Pakistan's reliance on imported petrol and diesel, improve fuel quality and strengthen energy security, an effort that has gai...