KARACHI: A consortium of Pakistan’s private companies have struck an agreement with a US firm to install a liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at Port Qasim.

The unit will have a capacity of 400 million British thermal units (mmBtu) which could be upgraded to 600 mmBtu.

“Our project development and operations teams are aggressively reviewing implementation plans for this project,” the chief development officer of Excelerate Energy told Dawn over the telephone from the United States.

According to local representative, US company Excelerate Energy and three Pakistani companies — Engro, Fatima and Shell — reached an agreement, in principle, for the delivery of a proposed floating LNG terminal. The deal was reached on Jan 31 after the two sides held extensive negotiations for a couple of months.

This will be the second LNG terminal at Port Qasim. The first FSRU having a capacity of 600 mmBtu started its operation in March 2015. This was a public-private joint venture but the second unit will be completely owned and run by the private sector. Looking at a growing demand for clean energy, the Pakistani consortium started talks with Excelerate Energy for the delivery of second FSRU.

Mohammad Rajpar, the local agent of Excelerate Energy, told Dawn the FSRU was expected to become operational in April 2018. The first LNG terminal, run by Engro, was also installed by the same company, he added.

The total regasification capacity of the two FSRU plants will be over one billion cubic feet (bcf) per day, which would be enough to generate around 6,000 megawatts of power.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2017