International Finance Corporation to Invest $27.5 mn in Pakistan LNG Project

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will invest $27.5 million in the construction of LNG terminal at Karachi’s Port Qasim, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

IFC will pump in $7.5m in the form of equity for 20 per cent shareholding, and a loan of $20m that will assist the project in securing long term debt financing from other foreign and local lenders, the newspaper reported.

The terminal, to be completed by early 2015, will be the first LNG import facility in Pakistan.

According to Dawn, the project involves use of a floating storage and regasification unit which will store the imported LNG and regasify it before transporting the gas through a 24km pipeline to the existing SSGC gas network near Port Qasim.

The LNG branch jetty will be built near the existing chemicals import and handling terminal operated by another subsidiary of Engro Corp. The major portion of the pipeline will be built inside the port industry zone.

Following a public tendering process in 2013, Engro Elengy Terminal (ETPL), a fully owned subsidiary of Engro Corporation, signed a 15-year LNG service agreement with the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Dawn said.