LONDON: Pakistan GasPort, the country’s second liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, plans to try injecting gas back into the facility’s onshore system on Thursday after a leak forced a shutdown last week, two sources said.

The newly inaugurated terminal suspended operations last week following a gas leak in the insulation joint linking the facility to the connecting pipeline infrastructure.

Since then, three gas leaks in total had been found, delaying repair work at the facility, an industry source said.

Pakistan GasPort initially said the terminal would be back in operation on Dec 8.

A senior official said he expects LNG stored inside the floating storage and re-gasification unit to begin to be converted into gas and injected into the onshore system on Thursday.

The industry source confirmed this.

On Wednesday, the 138,000-cubic-metre capacity Al Jassasiya LNG vessel berthed alongside the GasPort terminal, according to ship-tracking data. Data shows the vessel is carrying cargo.

Industry and trade sources said at least two LNG tankers have been cancelled or diverted away from the terminal since the leak.

Pakistan GasPort owner Associated Group (AG) did not respond to an emailed request for comment. AG’s chairman Iqbal Ahmed is also chairman of Pakistan GasPort.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017