RLNG prices up 1.5pc for March

ISLAMABAD: Government on Monday increased prices of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) by 1.5 percent for March over the previous month.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) raised RLNG prices by 1.51 percent for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and 1.55 percent for Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).

The Ogra set the new prices at $11.367/million metric British thermal unit (mmbtu) for SNGPL consumers and $11.3681/mmbtu for SSGC consumers. In February, the RLNG price for SNGPL was $11.1975/mmbtu and for SSGC, it was $11.1943/mmbtu.

In absolute terms, RLNG prices were increased $0.1695/mmbtu for SNGPL and 0.1738/mmbtu for SSGC.

LNG is an imported product and pegged with the international oil prices. Its prices could go down in months to come to benefit domestic, commercial and industrial sectors as the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rate averaged $56/barrel for the past one year, while WTI crude price tanked below $30/barrel.

Since RLNG has been the major contributor to power generation after hydropower sources, the cost of energy is likely to increase and is then charged from power consumers.

National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) data showed that power generation from RLNG was 957.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) in January with 12.29 percent share in the energy mix. However, coal for the first time was the top power contributor in January, with 2,500.78 GWh or 32.09pc of electricity, to the national grid.

The new notified prices of RLNG include charges of the LNG terminals, transmission losses, port charges, and margins of the importers – Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL). The new weighted average sale prices of RLNG have been computed, based on the seven cargoes imported for the month including six cargoes by PSO and one by PLL.

Pakistan has imported more than 19 million tons of LNG since 2015, with two re-gasification LNG terminals operating in the country. These terminals have pumped approximately 393.6 billion cubic feet/day (bcfd) of gas into the national gas distribution network in 2019, a 14 percent increase compared with 345.6 billion cubic feet in 2018. In 2019, the country imported 7.57 million tons of LNG through 123 LNG cargo ships against 108 cargoes in 2008.