KARACHI: State run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) has invited bids from international suppliers for supply of two Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes on delivered ex-ship basis at Port Qasim Karachi.

Cargo of 140,000 cubic meters each is required to be delivered on October 12-13, 2020 and October 19-20, 2020. The last date of submitting the bids is September 24, 2020.

Moreover, PLL would also procure one additional LNG cargo of 140,000 cubic meters quantity, which needs to be delivered on September 22-23, 2020.

It may be mentioned here, South Korean POSCO International and Azeri state energy company SOCAR Trading have already won the LNG supply tenders issued by Pakistan LNG Limited for September 2020 deliveries.

PSOCO International offered 7.9673 percent of Brent three months average for the cargo to be delivered on September 12-13, while SOCAR Trading offered 6.9511 percent of Brent three months average for delivery to be made on September 25-26, 2020.

PLL has been mandated by the government to carry out the business of the import, purifying, buying, storing, supplying, distributing, transporting, transmitting, processing, measuring, metering and selling of natural gas, LNG, re-gasified LNG, to meet the country’s gas requirements.

In this capacity, PLL procures LNG from international markets and enter into onward arrangements for supply of gas to the end user, thereby managing the whole supply chain of LNG from procurement to end user gas sale agreements.

The State of the Regulated Petroleum Industry Report FY 2018-19 issued by Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has estimated Pakistan’s gas demand to surpass 7.0 billion cubic feet/day (BCF) mark by 2030.

“The gas utility companies have added more than 0.5 million domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, in their respective systems, during fiscal year 2018-19. Consumers addition is increasing the gap between demand and supplies, day by day. Especially in winter, the gas demand further increases and as a result the government is forced to curtail supplies to various sectors,” report added.

The gap between demand and supply is expected to increase to 2.679 BCF in FY 2022-23 and 4.796 BCF by FY 2027-28 without the imported gas. The possible gap can be bridged through enhancement in indigenous gas exploration & production through incentivizing this sector, import of interstate natural gas through development of cross-country gas pipelines and increased import of LNG.

Pakistan currently has two operational LNG terminals – Elengy Terminal, having a capacity of 600 mmcfd, and Gasport Pakistan Ltd., also having a capacity of 600 mmcfd.

With Pakistan turning to be one of the fastest growing LNG markets since it first started importing in 2015, with imports rising to 8.4 million tons in 2019 from 6.8 million tons in 2018, analysts say there is an urgent need to speed up import capacity expansions, which have been planned to absorb incremental inflows.

S&P Global Platts Analytics forecasts LNG imports to rise to 9.3 million tons in 2021, if Pakistan can bring in another FSRU relatively quickly. Imports are expected to exceed 17 million tons by 2025.