Daily Times

To overcome the gas crisis in the country, the Petroleum Ministry has decided to buy the liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier spot cargo from the open market. Officials of the petroleum ministry on Saturday said that other countries have completed advanced booking of LNG internationally, including with Qatar. Thus there is no immediate availability of LNG anywhere for government-to-government contracts. However, the officials said that they are trying to buy cargoes from private companies who may have LNG and the ministry will attempt to buy at least two cargoes. The officials of the petroleum ministry went on to state that it is likely to get the additional cargoes come from countries such as Japan or Singapore. Getting the spot cargoes from the market will get cost $12 more and hence load management in winter will remain a challenge. Last week, Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik had stated that during his trip to Russia, they had sought LNG cargoes and Moscow had said that they would connect Islamabad with some private firms to acquire LNG.