ISLAMABAD: Anglo Dutch Shell, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader, is still keen to invest in the LNG sector of Pakistan, which has a growing appetite for oil-substitute to curtail power shortfall, after losing two opportunities of supplying gas to the country. Shell’s officials, in a meeting on Thursday with Minister of State for Petroleum Division Jam Kamal Khan, expressed the company’s interest in exploring LNG opportunity in the country that currently imports 600 million cubic feet of LNG per day. The delegation comprising Executive Vice President Energy Steve Hill, Vice President Energy Ajay Shah and country Chairman Pakistan Jawad Cheema of Shell visited the ministry of energy’s office. State minister reiterated the government’s support for investment by the company in the LNG sector. In January 2016, state-run Pakistan State Oil backed out of a nearly $1 billion deal to buy LNG from Shell after receiving a lower price from Qatar. But, Shell holds some stake in a consortium to develop FSRU comprising US-based Excelerate Energy, Engro and fertiliser company Fatima. The Shell consortium’s project is expected to come online in 2018, Excelerate said in a January statement. The FSRU, which was not named by Excelerate, would be located across the Port Qasim channel. A number of private companies also planned at least five more terminals in the vicinity of the port to meet the growing need of gas in Pakistan. Official estimates said the country’s LNG imports are to climb fivefold to 30 million tonnes per annum by 2022. Early this week, the country got its second LNG terminal ready six months behind the schedule. It would take the total LNG import volume into the country to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day. Recently, a consortium behind a LNG import project, including Exxon Mobil, Total and Qatar Petroleum, has also been dissolved to supply the project’s ship-based import terminal, a floating storage and regasification unit, where LNG brought in by tanker is converted back to gas to feed into grid. The project was set to be Pakistan’s third and biggest by import capacity, starting in late 2018 or early 2019. Minister Khan said the government’s key priority is creating greater levels of economic growth, “which is essential to delivering the millions of new jobs which are central to maintaining social stability.” “Clearly recognising the true cost of energy shortage to the economy – 2 to 3 percent of GDP growth – the government developed a bold vision to resolve this challenge permanently,” he added.
