ISLAMABAD: The Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik on Monday warned of severe gas load-shedding in winter despite arranging additional 200 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) LNG for the month of January and February next year.
Musadik Malik said that Pakistan would have ten LNG cargoes in January, while in February nine of them would be available for local consumption.
Gas load-shedding will be unavoidable, according to Malik, who briefed the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum during a meeting presided over by Senator Mohammad Abdul Qadir. “Despite the availability of an extra LNG cargo during the forthcoming high winter season,” Malik said.
According to Malik, the government would support private sector investments in fresh LNG terminals.
The state petroleum minister criticized the subsidized gas supply to the producers of fertilizer.
“The gas costing Rs4,000/MMBTU was being supplied to the fertilizer factories for just Rs250/MMBTU under the pressure of the fertilizer mafia,” the minister said.
A poor common consumer pays $17/MMBTU, while the exporting sector gets the same gas for $9/MMBTU; however, it is provided to the fertilizer-makers at a meagre $1.35-3/MMBTU.
“It is true exports are also important, the gas sector circular debt has ballooned to Rs1,500 billion,” he said adding, “We have to strike a balance between gas prices. We did not buy gas when it was available at $2-2.5/MMBTU. Now it has reached $40/MMBTU.”
Malik also revealed to the group that the nation intended to bring in 20,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) during the winter.
