LAHORE: Ongoing impo­rts of Liqu­efied Natural Gas (LNG) are meeting up to 25 per cent of gas shortage, which currently hovers around 2.5 billion cubic feet per day.

According to an official at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Pakistan has saved approximately $1.7bn by importing LNG, which is cheaper than furnace oil.

“Pakistan has imported 6.1 million tonnes of LNG through the country’s only LNG terminal, which is located at Port Qasim. Operated by Engro, the terminal has handled 94 LNG cargo ships within 28 months and re-gasified approximat­ely 284.7bn cubic feet of gas into the national distribution network,” an official said.

Commissioned on March 28, 2015, the terminal has the capacity to re-gasify 600-630 million standard cubic feet per day. The terminal continues to receive a monthly average of six consignments. “Most of the imported LNG so far has been utilised to run gas-based independent power producers that were either sitting idle due to the unavailability of gas or burning diesel,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2017