President FPCCI Abdul Rauf Alam has appreciated the historic agreement of import of LNG deal with Qatar and said that this accord will be a milestone in resolving the energy crisis. While applauding the efforts of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said that four agreements and MoUs have been signed with Qatar to increase co-operation in diverse fields between Pakistan and Qatar which have been witnessed by Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and Qatar Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
The most important agreement is import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Qatar, which shows keen interest of our Prime Minister to remove the energy crisis in next two years, he added. The President FPCCI further expressed his expectations that after import of LNG from Qatar the issue of the shortage of natural gas will be resolved and the industrial units in Punjab will remain in operation without any seasonal interruption.
While giving the details, he quoted the report of Economic Survey Pakistan 2014-15 and said that natural gas production has been stagnant at the 4,000 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD). There exists constrained demand for natural gas of 6,000 MMCFD against a supply of 4,000 MMCFD while the unconstrained demand for gas is estimated to be 8,000 MMCFD or more than double the current domestic production. In the same survey the industrial gas consumption was recorded 259,032mm cft gas consumed by the industry.
Under the agreement, Pakistan will import 3.75 million tons of LNG annually from Qatar which will fulfil 20 percent need of the country. Rauf Alam further said that uninterrupted supply of natural gas to the industrial consumers will favourable affects on the industrial production, investment and employment in the country which will ultimately be transferred into the higher rate of GDP growth. However, the Qatar government also assured to provide more jobs to Pakistanis.-PR