Pakistan on Thursday received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from Qatar since July at Port Qasim, according to a spokesman of the port.
The vessel, Al Marrouna, carrying LNG from Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal, passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and docked at Port Qasim in Karachi on Thursday morning, according to the spokesperson. “It marked the first Qatari LNG shipment for Pakistan through the Strait of Hormuz since July,” he said.
The Ministry of Energy on Friday confirmed that the vessel from Qatar had reached Port Qasim and berthed at the Engro Elengy Terminal. Earlier this week, the Ministry of Energy had said Qatar’s shipment was under an existing contractual arrangement and would help support LNG supplies, particularly for electricity generation. It said the cargo was priced at 13.37% slope of Brent as per the agreement, adding a second agreement between Qatar and Pakistan priced cargoes at 10.2% slope of Brent.
The arrival stands to provide some relief to Pakistan’s LNG supply chain after scheduled cargoes from Qatar were disrupted by the regional conflict and heightened tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.
Spot tenders
Amidst rising power shortages, state-run procurement company Pakistan LNG Limited has struggled to secure competitively priced spot cargoes. PLL had invited international suppliers to submit bids for one LNG cargo in a window of Sept. 12-16 but received no bids by the deadline, according to information posted on the company’s website on Sept. 8
The latest failure followed the cancellation of two earlier tenders for deliveries scheduled for Sept. 4-8 and Sept. 8-12 after the bids received were considered too expensive.
For the Sept. 4-8 delivery window, PLL received a single bid at $26.96 per million British thermal units, while for the Sept. 8-12 period it received two bids at $26.71 and $26.98 per million British thermal units. Both tenders were subsequently canceled.
The Energy Ministry official said Pakistan had received 14 LNG cargoes since the disruption began, with seven arriving under contractual agreements with Qatar and seven procured from the spot market.
Overall, Pakistan imported 82 LNG cargoes in FY26, around 30% down from the 117 cargoes secured the year prior, according to data from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and AKD Securities. The decline helped reduce the country’s import bill, but has resulted in power shortages.