Pak Committee Questions Qatar LNG Deal

Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum June 7 sought full details of the Qatar LNG deal from country’s petroleum ministry, according to a June 8 report by The Express Tribune.

The committee wants to know why Nawaz Sharif government struck the deal with only Qatar while options for entering into deals with other LNG producers were available. Qatar and Pakistan had signed a 20-year LNG deal in 2016 under which Qatargas will supply 1.3mn mt/yr of LNG to Pakistan, with provisions allowing the volume to increase to 2.3mn mt/yr.

Government officials informed the committee that Pakistan had spent $3.8bn on the import of 161 cargoes of LNG, the newspaper reported. The price set under the agreement with Qatar was 13.37% of Brent crude oil price.

This news come just a day after Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency National Accountability Bureau (NAB) approved an inquiry against former prime ministers Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi over alleged misuse of power in allotting an LNG terminal project contract. At present Pakistan has two operational LNG import terminals at Port Qasim, both approved during Sharif’s tenure.