Minister terms LNG pact with Qatar ‘game changer’ like CPEC

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday said that the LNG agreement recently signed between Pakistan and Qatar would not only help end energy crisis till 2018 but also prove to be a game changer in the national economic landscape like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Talking to ‘The News’, he said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made a pledge with the people that the power crisis would be resolved till 2018 and the LNG agreement would help translate this ambition into a reality within stipulated timeframe.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged to end power crisis till 2018 and we can say that the LNG deal signed with Qatar on the lowest prices in the region would greatly help produce some 2,000 megawatt of electricity from those power houses that are currently non-operational,” he said.

The minister said that the LNG agreement worth 16 billion dollar with Qatar, the biggest gas producer in the world, is a well thought-out deal because it would be a ‘game changer’ and would help save one billion dollar annually besides fulfilling 25 percent of the energy requirements of the country. “The negotiating committee comprising members of two countries held 12 rounds of talks before agreeing to the settled price of 13.37 percent of the brent that is cheaper than the gas to be imported through Iran-Pakistan and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline projects.

Referring to the deal re-negotiated by India in the recent past he said the India’s LNG contract was expensive by 30-35 percent than Pakistan’s deal with Qatar and it would be cheaper even the indigenous gas of the country.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the LNG deal would attract the business community and not only reduce oil import bill and unemployment but also enhance the industrial growth and facilitate various sectorslike textile and the CNG industry. He said that the arrival of LNG in Pakistan would directly benefit the people as electricity bills are expected to come down due to cheap electricity produced by LNG, adding “The supply to the fertilizer plants will help generate new employment opportunities and provide a tremendous boost to the agriculture sector.”

The minister said that the national economy had suffered badly due to the energy shortage but now under the agreement with Qatar, three LNG-carrying ships would reach Pakistan every month this year and next and the number of vessels would increase to five after 2017.