SINGAPORE: Pakistan Gasport is looking to buy a spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo for November delivery, its chairman Iqbal Ahmed told Reuters on Thursday, which would be the country’s first spot LNG deal since June 2022.

LNG is crucial for Pakistan, where natural gas accounts for over a third of power generation and local gas reserves are insufficient to address growing electricity demand in a country of over 230 million, leading to frequent power cuts.

Pakistan Gasport is evaluating interest for cargo from sellers in Oman, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed said.

“We’ve got different countries which have offered us different options. We are extremely encouraged by what we’ve heard today,” Ahmed told Reuters.

Pakistan Gasport owns the country’s largest LNG import and regasification terminal at Port Qasim, but LNG imports have historically been facilitated by Pakistan LNG, a state-run firm that last bought a spot cargo in June 2022 from PetroChina.

This cargo would be the first shipped in by a private sector company in Pakistan, said Ahmed, who expects LNG prices to fall in coming years, making spot purchases more attractive.

Ahmed said 12pc to the Brent slope was the “price to beat” for a cargo to Pakistan. That works out to nearly $11 per mmBtu, a discount of a sixth to current average Asian LNG prices of $13.

“If the government or anybody else can bring LNG at a price of 12pc of Brent or lower, there is a market. The minute you cross that barrier, there is resentment,” he said.

Ahmed said he expects Pakistan’s LNG demand to grow to 30m tonnes in 5 years, from about 10-12m tonnes now. “I plan to use a currency other than the dollar to facilitate the payment and also use a semi-barter system to settle,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

More desecration
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

More desecration

Attacks on the Islamic faith are not motivated by an attachment to free speech but by raw hatred.
Worrying remarks
27 Sep, 2023

Worrying remarks

THESE are ominous words from Gwadar. Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, chairman of the Gwadar Haq Do Tehreek, has warned ...
Justice or vendetta?
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

Justice or vendetta?

ONE wonders whether all pretence of the state as a democracy has been whittled down to a point where it has simply...
Free and fair?
Updated 26 Sep, 2023

Free and fair?

It is disingenuous to suggest the fairness of any polling exercise should be considered without regard to all that has preceded it.
Unto darkness
26 Sep, 2023

Unto darkness

YET another case of medical malpractice has come to light in Punjab. The eyesight of several diabetic patients has...
Unions on campus
26 Sep, 2023

Unions on campus

DEPOLITICISED youth unfamiliar with democratic norms cannot be good for the future of representative rule in...