Pakistan seeks 72 LNG cargoes for six years as energy woes bite

In its bid to meet the country’s growing energy needs, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL), has invited bids for 72 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes from international suppliers across a period of six years.

Suppliers are asked to submit bids by September 14, while bids are invited from reputed companies to ship cargo on a Delivered Ex-Ship basis (DES) at Port Qasim, Karachi, stated PLL.

“Bid documents shall be available from 10 August 2022 to 13 September 2022,” it said.

The company is seeking one cargo per month for the six-year period, documents showed.

Each cargo is to have a volumetric quantity of 140,000m3, added PLL, which has been mandated by the government of Pakistan to carry out the business of importing, buying, storing, supplying, distributing, transporting, transmitting, processing, measuring, metering and selling natural gas, LNG and re-gasified LNG.

In this capacity, PLL procures LNG from international markets and enters into onward arrangements for the supply of gas to end-users, thereby managing the whole supply chain of LNG from procurement to end-users.

Last month, PLL invited bids for 10 LNG cargoes from international suppliers during the July-August-September window.

Suppliers were asked to submit bids by July 7. As per PLL documents, each cargo was to have a volumetric quantity of 140,000m3.

However, in an unusual development, the state-owned LNG purchaser did not receive a single offer in a $1 billion LNG purchase tender, reported Bloomberg, citing traders with knowledge of the matter. “That illustrates both the extent of the global fuel shortage and also the reluctance of suppliers to sell to a country in the depths of an economic crisis,” said the report then.

PLL receives no bids for import of 10 LNG cargoes

In June, PLL for technical reasons disqualified the two bids it received for a tender seeking one spot cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for delivery in early July.

Back then, an offer from TotalEnergies was disqualified because it did not submit a bid bond and the ENOC Singapore bid was disqualified because it did not provide “proof of delivery of eight LNG cargoes”, PLL said in documents on its website.

Amid supply-chain disruptions globally owing to the Russia-Ukraine war, prices of energy commodities including LNG have skyrocketed.

On the other hand, Pakistan is dealing with fuel shortages, particularly in its power sector, as electricity consumption spikes in the summer months, leading to power outages across the country.