Power Sector to Drive Pakistan's Gas Demand: Report
Pakistan could import as much as 9 million metric tons/year of LNG soon thanks to increasing demand for gas in the power sector, The Express Tribune reported September 11, citing a government official. The south Asian nation at present has three gas-fired power plants in operation with generation capacity of 3.6 GW.
Since the start of the year Pakistan has imported 4mn mt of LNG, the newspaper quoted the government official saying. The south Asian nation started importing LNG in 2015 with the commissioning of FSRU Exquisite, located at Port Qasim near Karachi, which has storage capacity of 150,900 m3 and a peak regasification rate of 745mn ft3/d (7.7bn m3/yr). Last month Dutch firm Vopak said it would take a stake in that import terminal while in June Qatar's state shipowner Nakilat said it would take a stake in the FSRU itself.
Last year, Pakistan commissioned its second FSRU also located at Port Qasim. As of mid-June 2018, reports indicated that the country had imported 10mn mt of LNG since 2015.
The official said although the three power plants have become fully functional only this year, they will still substitute 10mn mt of furnace oil with gas. Industry sources told The Express Tribune that at current oil prices, regasified LNG (RLNG)-based power generations has become significantly more economical vis-à-vis power generation using fuel oil.