Pakistan's CNG Industry to Independently Import LNG

Pakistan’s CNG industry will begin importing LNG independently in the next few months, according to a local newspaper report.

“We have completed almost 95 percent work on this front [importing LNG],” The Express Tribune quoted Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, chief executive officer of Universal Gas Distribution Company (UGDC) as saying.

The move to privately import the fuel will enable CNG stations to remain open 24 hours a day and seven days a week nationwide, industry officials told the newspaper on Saturday.

UGDC (Private) Limited is a special vehicle firm set up with the aim to import LNG, market and sell it to CNG fuel stations nationwide.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) awarded it the licence on February 22, 2016. Earlier, Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources had also given their approvals.

UGDC has signed the mandatory agreement with two state owned gas utilities, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, The Express Tribune added. Infrastructure owned by the two utilities will be used to transport gas from the terminal to pumps.