Inaugurating the second Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Karachi's Port Qasim on Sunday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that LNG was the only solution to Pakistan's energy crisis.

"If you don't add more gas into the system, you cannot fight the energy crisis," he insisted, adding that other methods to produce energy are either too expensive or too slow.

Talking about the challenges faced during the project, the prime minister said that many people had questioned it [the project] when it started but "Port Qasim came through" and the terminal started functioning in less than 14 months "which is exemplary".

The premier further said that previous governments had made several attempts to introduce LNG as a source of energy in the country, "but only the PML-N government had succeeded in doing so".

The terminal was established by Engro Terminal Limited within a record time of 330 days and has the capacity to regasify up to 600 mmscfd. Applauding the services of private sector companies that worked on the terminal, Abbasi said that the project was a "real example of cooperation between private sector and the government".

Earlier in August, an official at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said that imports by the LNG Terminal 1 on Port Qasim fulfil 25 per cent of the national gas shortage. The first terminal had received 102 shipments of LNG, the prime minister said today.