The News: India-Qatar LNG deal at $10-12 poses challenge to Pakistan

India has set a benchmark of LNG price from Qatar in the region at $10-12 per MMBTU posing an enormous challenge to Pakistani authorities.

According to Dr Miftah Ismail, Chairman Board of Investment who is also chairman of board of directors of Sui Southern, as per existing international price, the LNG price from Qatar will hover at $17 per MMBTU for Pakistan. After adding other charges it will hover at $18.

Dr Miftah said if the LNG is provided to power houses the sales tax will be re-adjusted. So the cost of LNG price because of GST will not increase.

When his attention was drawn towards the fact that India is importing LNG from Qatar at $10-12 per MMBTU as mentioned in the letter of energy expert Arshad H Abbasi associated with SDPI written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Dr Miftah said: “I assure that this government will get a better deal with Qatar and we will also look into the Qatar-India deal prior to advancing on LNG deal.”

However, independent sources said that the government has made up its mind to make the delivered cost of imported LNG from Qatar to end consumers at $20 MMBTU which will surely be uneconomical. MORE