Gift of gaseous gold from Qatar

It is like a gaseous gold that Qatar has gracefully pledged to give to Pakistan by inking the 16-billion-dollar deal for supply of LNG at the rate which globally recognised economists say is the cheapest in the south Asian region. Obviously, it owes to the generous and courteous gesture of Emirate/State of Qatar under the kind leadership of Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani though some analysts and economists are of the opinion that it owes to the good bargaining prowess of Pakistan’s elected leader, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, and his hard-working team spearheaded by Ministers Ishaq Dar and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. A few even give credit to Saifur Rehman, the old pal and confidant of Sharif family for having paved the way for much better business ties with Qatar (Saif’s striking presence at Port Qasim some months back in the presence of PM Sharif and one of Qatar’s princes during the ground-breaking ceremony of 1320 megawatt coal-fired plant is a case in point).  

The fact is that both the factors, Qatar’s goodwill and Pakistani leaders’ good bargaining abilities, have come into play and here one needs to differentiate between bargaining on purely business terms and bargaining with a time-tested friend which in the instant case, is none other than Qatar. People still remember the free of charge gift of modern landing system at Lahore airport from Qatar and the huge investment in Port Qasim's mega energy project that also enjoys the support of one of the sincerest friends of Pakistan, the People's Republic of China. One can safely opine that the patience of Pakistani nation has at last borne fruit. They had to exercise lot of patience, waiting for this deal and its implementation to materialise. Yet greater patience they had to exercise while facing misleading speculations as well as imaginary figures about gas price offered by Qatar. Rather, there was lot of hue and cry about it. 

Some of the analysts and opinion makers made it look like a mysterious, non-transparent deal which carried no benefits for the common man as if it were some kind of a deal between the ruling lot of Qatar and that of Pakistan. These conjectures were being discussed quite often without taking into consideration the fact as to why the government of Qatar would engage in out-of-the way favouritism for any Pakistani leader in his individual capacity. No doubt, Qatar has given a gift by way of preferential, affordable price but that doesn’t mean that Pakistan didn’t qualify at all for this deal. 

And then, to add insult to injury, some people from among the detractors of Pak-Qatar LNG deal, started using the old India card by drawing comparisons between ongoing India-Qatar deal and the present Pak-Qatar deal. The point highlighted most of the time before the inking of the present agreement was that Pakistan would be supplied gas at a much costlier rate as compared to the gas supplied to India. 

The government's long silence or delay in clarifying the gossip gave further boost to rumour-mongering although the government moguls say that their silence was in fact rooted in considerations of diplomatic discretion and decency as well as in the routine secrecy that is traditionally maintained in business deals before they materialise (this is the standard practice almost all over the modern world where all the details about B to B or Business to Business and G to G or Government to Government deals are kept confidential till a certain embargo period). 

Now, the shroud of mystery that had been forced upon our socio-political fabric stands unwrapped with the opening up of information that has something good to offer to the people of Pakistan as Pak-Qatar LNG deal will provide gas at the rate of 5.35 dollars per MMBtu which is the cheapest gas available to any country of South Asia. Comparing this rate with gas likely to come from Pak-Iran gas pipeline, the latter would supply gas to Pakistan at $ 5.70/MMBtu whereas TAPI gas would cost Pakistan $ 5.90/MMBtu. 

This is indeed a triumph of Pakistani nation’s perseverance in building up this energy corridor by contributing towards country’s economic growth. Certainly it is the sum total of the overall struggle of all the elements of national power that have transformed Pakistan into an attractive destination for foreign investors. However, notwithstanding this developed worth of Pakistan, this low-priced LNG is like a priceless gift of gaseous gold given by Qatar to the people of Pakistan.