Polish company to open LNG trading office in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A Polish oil and gas company, PGNiG, is considering to set up its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trading office in Pakistan, keeping in view vast business potential of the commodity here.

“The company is also dealing with the LNG and has opened its trading offices in different countries. Now, we are considering to set up LNG trading office in Pakistan as there is a lot of scope for business,” President PGNiG Management Board Piotr Wozniak told APP.

He said his company, operating in Pakistan since 1997, would make all-out efforts to step up oil and gas exploration and production activities in Pakistan to meet its growing energy needs.

Meanwhile, official sources told that the country’s overall import of LNG was likely to double by July 2017 from its current volume of 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).

“Currently, Pakistan is importing 600 mmcfd RLNG, which is added to the transmission network and hopefully same quantity will be added to the current supply by July, 2017,” they said.

Currently, the sources said, there was a huge gap between demand and supply (domestic production) of gas, adding “therefore, reliance on imported gas is likely to increase in future unless new major gas discoveries are made.”

They informed that the government had taken several measures to reduce reliance on imported gas.

Elaborating the steps, the sources said, the Petroleum Policy 2012 was being implemented in letter and spirit, offering attractive terms and conditions to investors.

Under the policy, they said, as many as 46 new blocks had been awarded under Petroleum Policy 2012, while the clearance process had been initiated for award of another 32 exploration blocks to oil and gas exploration and production companies through transparent bidding process.

Answering a question, the sources said producer gas price had been increased from 31 percent to 68 percent for different zones to encourage investment in the oil and gas sector.

For new exploration efforts in old blocks, they said, Supplemental Agreements had been signed for conversion to the 2012 Petroleum Policy’s price.

The government introduced the bonanza of $ 1 per MMBTU for first three discoveries in offshore area, and allowed E&P companies to sell 10 percent of gas production to any buyer.