KARACHI, April 28: Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and Pakistan Gas Port on Saturday signed an implementation agreement for setting up a floating LNG terminal at the Port Qasim at an estimated cost of $160 million on BOT basis, having a capacity of three million tons per annum.

PQA chairman vice admiral M Asad Qureshi and Pakistan Gas Port chairman Iqbal Z Ahmed signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations in the presence of minister for ports and shipping Babar Khan Ghauri.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the country needed rapid advancement, and it was necessary that there was no negative propaganda.

He said his ministry’s performance had been appreciated by the US diplomat who stated that the ministry was a role model for others.

Mr Ghauri said in a recent meeting in Islamabad when a question was raised that how quick a piece of land is allotted for setting up an industry, his reply was only 24 hours. However, he said it was unfortunate when you work efficiently, it was branded with such negative remarks that some speed money may have been used to fasten the process, etc.

The minister said that Pakistanis had played a major role in the development of Dubai where trades, like banking, airlines and many other projects and systems, were developed by our nationals, but unfortunately in Pakistan when anyone works hard and delivers goods, he is branded as corrupt, and other negative remarks are given against him.

There was a time, he said, when there was a flight of capital from Pakistan and many Pakistanis even today have overseas setups and houses, but today under the vision of the president and the prime minister, investment is coming to the country and job opportunities were being created.

Mr Ghauri lauded the role of the board of directors of the PQA and said their cooperation and guidance had played a great role in fast progress of the port.

The PQA, he said, was being run on landlord concept and the chairman and his team are dedicated to rapid industrialisation of the port area and upgradation of port facilities to meet the growing demand of port users.

In his address of welcome, the PQA chairman said there was little difference between Dubai and Port Qasim as both were having only sand dunes, but after 30 years the port has become fully operative and a large number of big industrial units, including Pakistan Steel, are functioning in its vicinity.

Presently, he said 10 private sector projects are in the process of being set up at an estimated cost of $4.5 billion.

After deepening the channel, he said freight charges are expected to come down by $2 to $8 per ton.

Similarly, he said PQA contributed highest revenue at Rs70 billion to the national exchequer in the year 2005-06.

Natural gas plays a key role in country’s energy and accounts for more than 50 per cent of its requirement.

With accelerating economic growth and rapidly rising demand of energy, there would be acute shortfall in power and gas.

The projects is expected to come into operation by March next year.

The floating storage and re-gasification terminal by the Pakistan Gas Port is the first of its kind in the country and second in the world.

The project is a green field development, inclusive of financing, construction, operation and maintenance of floating LNG terminal, including de-gasification, storage of gas, dredging from navigation channel to the terminal, all equipment and pipelines.