Pakistan expects to receive a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Qatar under a long-term contractual agreement on Sept. 22, marking the second such shipment to arrive in the country this month, said an official on Monday.
The LNG vessel, identified as Shandong Redwood, is scheduled to berth at the Pakistan GasPort Terminal at Port Qasim, the official said. “Yes, the vessel has been arriving from Qatar under contractual agreement to be berthed at Port Qasim at one of the LNG terminals,” said the Ministry of Energy official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The expected arrival comes after Pakistan received an LNG cargo from Qatar on Sept. 10, ending an almost two-month gap in Qatari LNG deliveries. Prior to that, Qatar’s last cargo had arrived in July, the official said.
Pakistan continues to face challenges in securing spot LNG supplies amid elevated international prices.
Pakistan LNG Ltd., the state-owned LNG importer, invited international suppliers to bid for one LNG cargo for delivery in September, but received no bids by the Sept. 8 deadline, according to information posted on the company’s website. The latest unsuccessful tender followed the cancellation of two previous tenders for deliveries scheduled for Sept. 4-8 and Sept. 8-12 because the bids were considered too expensive.
For the Sept. 4-8 delivery window, PLL received one bid at $26.96 per million British thermal units. For the Sept. 8-12 window, it received two bids at $26.71/MMBtu and $26.98/MMBtu. Both tenders were subsequently canceled.
The high cost of spot LNG has made contracted Qatari supplies increasingly important for Pakistan as the country seeks to manage its gas requirements and contain the cost of energy imports.
Pakistan imported 82 LNG cargoes in the last fiscal year, down about 30% from a year earlier and equivalent to a reduction of roughly 35 cargoes, according to data from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and AKD Securities released July 22. The decline in LNG imports has also contributed to a lower energy import bill.
Pakistan’s LNG import bill fell 28% to $364 million during the first two months of the current fiscal year, from $508 million in the same period a year earlier, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data released on Monday.
The latest Qatari cargo comes as Pakistan seeks to balance lower LNG demand with the need to maintain adequate gas supplies for the power, industrial and domestic sectors.