Gazprom Looking To Supply Pakistan: Lavrov

Russian Gazprom is looking at exporting LNG to Pakistan, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said February 20 after talks in Moscow with his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Russian news agency TASS reported the same day.

"The flagship project is construction of the North-South gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore. Other options are also examined, including deliveries of liquefied natural gas to Pakistan by Gazprom," Lavrov said.

The south Asian nation has become an important buyer in the global LNG market since it began importing the commodity in 2015 and now has two floating import terminals operating. The newer of these floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), recently inaugurated at Port Qasim, received its first cargo from Nigeria. But since then until now, Pakistan has been importing all its LNG from Qatar.

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s federal cabinet February gave the go-ahead to the signing of an inter-governmental agreement between Pakistan and Oman for supply of LNG, but it's unclear how quickly that might translate into actual trade.

Pakistan’s LNG imports have been steadily growing as the import infrastructure expands. Pakistan's first LNG import venture began in operation in March 2015, with the FSRU Exquisite -- on charter from US shipowner Excelerate -- based at Port Qasim near Karachi providing the infrastructure. More FSRUs are expected to be developed in coming years as LNG demand increases. During the inauguration of the second FSRU November 20 2017, Trafigura said it will be working on developing another FSRU at Port Qasim, again in cooperation with Pakistan GasPort.