Pakistan seeks bids to import two LNG cargoes in January

ISLAMABAD: The government issued a tender on Friday to buy two cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for delivery in January 2021, petroleum division officials said.

An ‘urgency spot tender’ was issued to meet the country’s peak winter demand, given the shortage of gas.

“The bids for the tender would be opened on Monday, January 14, 2021,” an official told The News.

In November, the government had floated a tender for January 2021 supplies, but supplier refused to provide the cargoes during the first fortnight of January owing to uncertain situation in the international LNG market. However, they were ready to supply in the second half of the month.

Since the government did not succeed in securing the desired cargoes on the already floated tender in November, it floated the new tender after a hurriedly high-level meeting at Petroleum Division.

“After getting these cargoes, we will face no shortage of gas in January. And if, the demand further increases, then under the load management plan already approved by the cabinet, we can cut supply to CNG and captive power plants,” the petroleum division official said.

The official said the recently uncertain situation in international market arose after major supplying countries, including Australia, Qatar, Algeria, Malaysia, etc, shut down their plants for routine maintenance.

“We had already secured 11 cargoes from our three suppliers including Qatar gas, Gunvor and Eni,” the official said. Pakistan has long-term contracts with these suppliers for 6.78 million metric tons of LNG annually.

The Petroleum Division in a statement said the PLL tender that has just closed, with the same average slope as of December, a total number of 11 cargoes are secured for January 2021.

“PLL is also working on making arrangements for two more cargoes for January 2021.”

The division also clarified there had been no planned gas load shedding anywhere in the country since the onset of winter in November. “As approved by the Federal Cabinet, the load management plan put in place will ensure no gas load shedding for domestic, commercial and export industry customers,” it added.

“CNG will be curtailed based on available supplies, followed by captive generation.” The cheapest cargo Pakistan ever bought at $2.23/mmbtu had only 39 days between bid opening and delivery, while previously the most expensive cargo bought at $10.27 had 71 days between bid opening and delivery.