Pakistan signs 10-year LNG agreement with Qatar

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and Qatar have signed a ten-year LNG agreement in Islamabad, the government announced on Friday.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Under the agreement, Qatar will provide three million tons of LNG to Pakistan for ten years.

Speaking on the occasion, Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi termed the LNG agreement a historic one for both the countries. He expressed the confidence that this will lead to promotion of cooperation between the two countries.

Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar said the new agreement signed with Qatar for import of LNG is supportive and meets our needs and requirements. He said the agreement is a start of a new era and take the bilateral relations between the two countries to new heights.

The Special Assistant said Pakistan will further engage with Qatar in petrochemical supplies.

Later, speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Central Business District ceremony in Lahore, the prime minister said that his government had been trying to negotiate this deal for the past one year and the new deal would help save the nation $300mn annually.

"And in 10 years' time, Pakistan will save $3bn," he added.

Under a $1.1 billion loan agreement with International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), state-owned Pakistan State Oil, Pak-Arab Refinery and Pakistan LNG will utilise the funds to import crude oil, refined petroleum products and LNG during 2021, the government said.

“This will be helpful to augment foreign currency reserves of the country and provide resources to meet the oil import bill,” it said.

Pakistan LNG bought an LNG cargo from Qatar Petroleum for April delivery following a tender earlier in the month at just over 10% of Dated Brent.

According to local media reports, demand for oil and gas in Pakistan has been recovering as economic activities inch towards normalcy.

The South Asian nation, which started importing LNG in 2015, has two operational floating import terminals, both in Port Qasim near Karachi.