Overcoming shortfall: Govt pursuing multi-pronged strategy to meet energy needs

Strategy includes LNG import and discovery of new hydrocarbon resources

ISLAMABAD: Spurred by the gas demand growing to over six billion cubic feet per day (cfd) and depleting hydrocarbon resources, the government has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to ease Pakistan’s energy crisis.

It is importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in addition to pursuing long-term projects such as the Iran-Pakistan (IP) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipelines.

According to an official source, previous governments too unsuccessfully tried to import LNG. They failed because they adopted an approach where the supplier was supposed to develop an LNG terminal.

“But the present government succeeded in providing the country with its first LNG-based gas within 20 months of coming to power,” he added.

The government pursued a transparent process for developing a terminal and Engro Elengy built the SSGC LNG regasification terminal in a record time – the contract was signed on April 2014 and first gas flow was ensured in March this year.

The source said the government needed to sign five more contracts to import LNG, as currently LNG caters to 20% of the country's needs. The government plans to build one terminal at Port Qasim and another at Gwadar port to handle over two billion cfd of LNG

On the IP project, the government has done work on its part and is awaiting only relaxation or removal of international sanctions on Iran.

The government has also recently broken ground on the Tapi project, which had lingered on for the last 25 years. According to the official, the first gas flow from Tapi is expected in December 2019.

The government has also awarded several exploration licenses to discover more hydrocarbon resources and augment domestic production which is currently stagnant at four billion cfd.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2015.