Foreign companies to invest in Pakistan's LNG sector

ISLAMABAD: World major players are showing keen interest to invest in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector of Pakistan after seeing immense business potential of the commodity here.

"LNG is the cheapest source of fuel and the world's major players are showing interest to invest in LNG sector of Pakistan by setting up their own terminals and developing transmission network to supply the commodity to consumers," official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources told APP.

They said the government wanted to involve private sector in this sector and there would be a 'good news' in next few weeks in this regard.

Currently, the sources said 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) LNG was being imported, which greatly helped in meeting the country's energy requirements as all gas-based power generation plants were now functioning fully, 1200 CNG stations restarted their operations, industrial and fertilizer sectors getting uninterrupted supply.

Before LNG import, they said Pakistan was importing one million ton fertilizer per year and now it was exporting six million tons fertilizer, adding entire power generation sector was getting smooth gas supply, besides Nandipur power plant had also been converted on LNG.

Answering a question, they said LNG import from Qatar would not affect in the prevailing political situation in Gulf, except any force majeure situation or any international sanction with regard to LNG export from Qatar.

They said Pakistan was importing 2.7 million tonnes (mt) of LNG whereas India was importing 9 mt and South Korea, Japan and China were importing 60 mt LNG from Qatar.

Pakistan, the sources said, was already negotiating LNG import deals with countries including China, Turkey, Russia, Malaysia and Oman, adding "Pakistan will strike LNG deals with potential exporters."