Pakistan secures 6 LNG spot cargoes for May-June

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) on Thursday decided to source six cargoes -four for May and two for June- to maximise RLNG-based power generation, which is cheaper than petroleum-fired production of electricity.

The company received 12 bids for 6 spot LNG cargoes in the range of minimum price at $24.1500-31.778/MMBTU for the months of May and June, which would help the government cut down the cost of power generation.

Authorities decided to purchase all cargoes with an aim to run the RLNG-based power plants instead of furnace oil and diesel fired ones after getting average price of spot cargos and term cargoes under GtG long contracts, available at 13.37 percent and 10.2 percent of the Brent.

“This is how the RLNG-based power plants will be able to produce power at lower rates as compared to furnace oil and diesel run plants,” a senior official at Petroleum Division told The News.

“This will help slice down average power tariff bringing solace to all categories of power consumers in the country.”

Pakistan is getting seven LNG shipments from Qatar under two GtG agreements, out of which it will receive five cargoes/month at 13.37 percent of the Brent under 15-year deal signed in 2015 and two in every month till June 2022 at 10.2 percent of the Brent under a 10-year contract.

From July 2022, Pakistan will start receiving three cargoes under a second deal with Qatar and from 2024, the number of cargoes will be four in one month under a 10-year deal. However, for June, the government has managed to get hold of one more cargo at 10.2 percent of the Brent from Qatar under a second contract.

This is how Pakistan will have 12 LNG cargoes with 1.2 bcfd flow of gas in May and 11 in June with 1.1bcfd gas. After one or two weeks’ hydrogenation, which currently stands at 3400 MW, will also increase reasonably.

“So in the next two months Pakistan will have abundant RLNG for all sectors of economy despite the fact that ENI has defaulted on LNG cargo scheduled on May1, 2022, while Guvnor has already defaulted for April, May and June,” the official said.

According to official details, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) had issued the tender on April 17, 2022, seeking bids from LNG traders for six spot cargoes and opened the bids on Thursday (April 21, 2022) and decided to purchase spot cargoes for May and two for the month of June.

Total Energies Gas & Power won the contracts for providing three cargoes and Qatar Energy Trading two, and Vital Bahrain secured a deal for one spot cargo.

PLL got the lowest bid of $29.6700/MMBTU from Total Energies Gas & Power for the spot cargo to be delivered on May 1-2, 2022.

Likewise, the national LNG company also received the lowest bid of $24.1500/MMBTU from the same company (Total Energies) for the spot cargo at $24.1500/MMBTU to be offloaded on May 12-13.

Vitol Bahrain offered the lowest bid at $34.7780/MMBTU for the cargoes to be delivered on May 17-18, while Total Energies submitted the lowest bid for the spot cargo to be delivered on May 27-28.

However, for the month of June, PLL got the lowest bid from Qatar Energy Trading at $27.67/MMBTU for the June 6-7 window and from Total Energies for the spot cargoes to be delivered in June at $29.0400/MMBTU.

Apart from LNG-based power plants at Haveli Bahadur Shah, Bhiki, Balloki, and Trimmu, 210MW Liberty Power, 410MW Rousch, 525MW Nandipur, 140MW FKPCL, and nine units of Faisalabad GTPS, have not been producing electricity because of unavailability of RLNG since Dec 12, 2021.

These units will now get the maximum RLNG for electricity production.

“With the provision of RLNG all the above-mentioned plants will be fully functional to generate the maximum electricity,” the official said.

Currently, the Petroleum Division is getting almost 550MMCFD for the power sector after closing down the gas supply to the CNG sector in Punjab and slashing down the supply by 50 percent to captive power plants of export and local industry because of import of just 800MMCFD LNG.

Following Gunvor's cancellation of four LNG cargoes, PLL has decided not to procure LNG from the spot market in the wake of the higher bid price at $34.677/MMBTU for April and $33.53/MMBTU for May.