LNG contract with Qatar deferred for a year: Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik

Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said on Wednesday that the federal government has deferred an agreement to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar for a year and will now receive the contracted LNG cargoes in 2026 instead of 2025.

“We currently have a surplus of LNG, so we are not importing any new cargo,” Malik said. There were no financial penalties for deferring, rather than cancelling, the order, he added.

Annual power use in the country, with a third of the electricity generated from natural gas, has fallen 8-10 per cent year-on-year over the past three quarters, Power Minister Awais Leghari told Reuters last month, primarily due to higher tariffs curbing household consumption.

Pakistan has deferred five LNG cargoes from Qatar and is negotiating to defer five more with other markets, Malik told journalists, without disclosing the names of the sellers.

Last month, the government said it was slashing electricity tariffs over the winter to boost consumption and cut the use of natural gas for heating.

Many power utilities have had to curtail or even halt operations in winter months due to demand dropping by up to 60pc from peak summer levels.

Malik told Reuters in June that Pakistan was unlikely to buy LNG cargoes on the spot market until at least the beginning of winter in November due to oversupply and high prices.

Pakistan, which last bought a spot LNG cargo in late 2023, cancelled its spot LNG tender for delivery in January owing to oversupply and a lack of buyers in the country at spot prices.

Malik also denied local media reports that the government was closing a deal to import one cargo of crude oil from Russia each month from January.

He said the government had restarted talks with Russia and was looking to solve obstacles such as “insurance, reinsurance, deal structure, shipping lines and ship cargo size”, but had not concluded a deal.

The previous caretaker government had decided not to pursue a government-to-government agreement with Russia, allowing the private sector to step in, Malik said.

Pakistan signed a deal with Russia in 2023 to import crude oil for local refining, which included a 100,000 metric tonne shipment to state-owned Pakistan Refinery Limited.

Under that arrangement, Pakistan paid for the crude at a discounted rate using Chinese yuan.