ISLAMABAD: The smooth import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is vital to bridge the ever-increasing gap between demand and supply of natural gas as the country’s current total gas production stands at four billion cubic feet (bcfd) per day against the demand of eight bcfd of the commodity, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources on Sunday.
“Pakistan is facing a huge gap between demand and supply of energy,” official sources said, adding that currently it was short of 4 bcfd gas to meet requirements of domestic, commercial and industrial consumers besides power generation units. Highlighting importance of LNG, they said that it was the essential part of the energy mix needs of emerging economies. “The world is turning towards LNG, especially the emerging economies such as China, Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, European Union, and Brazil ensure that LNG remains part of their energy mix,” they said. The sources added that Japan was importing almost 80 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG and India is importing 15 MTPA due to the commodity’s cheap price and efficiency as compared to other fuels.
They said that Pakistan recently signed a 15 year agreement with Qatar to import up to 3.75 million tonnes of LNG a year, which significantly improved gas supply to consumers.
Justifying the LNG import deal they said that in Pakistan, the natural gas accounts for 35 per cent of all power generation, 23.8 per cent of industrial use, 15.6 per cent fertilizer, 5.4 per cent Compressed Natural Gas, and 18.1 per cent of the household use. The current gas shortfall is of four bcfd or almost 50 per cent of the total gas demand. The LNG would help the country add about 2,000 megawatts of gas fired power generating capacity and improve production from fertilizer plants, the sources added.
