Pakistan will sign a deal next month to import gas shipments from Qatar for the next 15 years, a top Pakistani energy official said Wednesday, an agreement that should help tackle Pakistan’s chronic gas shortages.
The flexible contract will allow Pakistan to import between 200 and 400 million standard cubic feet per day (mmcfd), said Mobin Saulat, head of state-run Inter State Gas systems, which oversees the pipelines.
He would not comment on the price, but said it was “very competitive”. “It’s finalised and there’s just a couple of formalities. We should be able to sign it in August,” he said.
Pakistan currently faces a gas shortage of around 2,000 mmcfd per day.
Pakistan has imported seven spot cargos of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar since the completion of an LNG terminal in the southern port city of Karachi in April, said Saulat.
“It’s fully operational,” he said of the terminal. “It’s helped a lot in meeting the deficit.”
Pakistan’s gas companies are also upgrading their distribution system, he said, and Pakistan is expected to sign a government-to-government agreement with Russia to build a new pipeline from Karachi to the provincial capital of Lahore next month, he said.
Russian company Rostec is interested in building the pipeline, he said.
