ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s energy minister has said the country had secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Qatar to meet demand during the upcoming winter season, local media reported on Friday, amid an unprecedented surge in energy costs.
The country experiences gas outages in the winter season each year as the supply diminishes with a huge chunk of population switching on heaters to cozy up households.
To meet growing demand, the government decided to source LNG from Qatar under a long-term deal before the winter reaches its peak.
“We have got most LNG cargoes in line for November, December and January period,” Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said as quoted by English-language newspaper The News.
“Some of the import shipments are from the new Qatar agreement at 10.2 percent of Brent.”
The minister did not specify the number of cargoes booked for the three-month period, according to the report.
Last week, Pakistan did not receive a single quotation in a bidding process for spot purchase, seeking eight LNG cargoes for delivery from December to January, raising concerns about a potential energy crisis amid peak demand.
At a time when LNG is not only witnessing all-time high prices, but sourcing it has also become an uphill task for many countries, consumers in Pakistan are bracing themselves for a severe natural gas crisis during winter.
Amid a five-time increase in the price of spot LNG cargo since early 2021, LNG is trading at record levels with high demand from almost all major importing nations in Europe and Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, China and India.
