Pakistan and Iran have signed a deal under which the former will import 75,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas within a year, months after a similar agreement was inked with Qatar.
According to the deal, signed by the All Pakistan Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distributors Association and a national Iranian company, at least 6,000 tons of LPG will be imported from Iran every month over the course of a year.
In February, Pakistan and Qatar signed a $16-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal which provides imports for 16 years, throwing the authorities in energy-crisis ridden Pakistan a life-line for supplies.
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The deal signed in Doha by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa will see Qatar export 3.75 million tons of LNG to Pakistan. This is significant for Pakistan, which faces a 50% supply gap in relation to demand.
As concerns the deal with Iran, the price of the imported LPG will be in line with local market prices, according to All Pakistan Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distributors Association president Irfan Khokhar.
In the meantime, Pakistan's only LNG terminal at Port Qasim has converted 1.7 million tons of imported LNG and pumped more than 77 billion cubic feet of gas into the national gas distribution network. Over the course of last 13 months, some 29 LNG shipments from Qatar, Australia, Nigeria and Spain have docked at this port.
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"This terminal alone will save up to $600 million for Pakistan through fuel substitution and will generate up to 2,000MW of electricity. The step to set up LNG import infrastructure is in the right direction and the country needs another three to four LNG import terminals to curtail the ongoing crisis," Pakistani media quoted terminal manager Amir Mahmud as saying.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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