Pakistan’s liquefied natural gas demand will nearly triple in five years as its production of domestic gas dwindles, Bloomberg reported.
The South Asian nation will need 25 cargoes of the super-chilled fuel a month by then, from nine a month now, Shehryar Omar, chief executive officer of the Petroleum Institute of Pakistan, said at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary.
Pakistan has struggled to secure enough LNG to cover its needs after prices surged to an all-time high last year.
The nation’s industries and households have seen an increase in gas outages. Exporters are reluctant to agree to sell shipments of power plants and heating fuel to Pakistan because of the emerging nation’s credit risk.
The country’s domestic gas output has dropped over the past decade. It currently produces 3.8 billion cubic feet a day versus the demand of 6bn cubic feet a day, Omar said.
The country will start importing 10 cargoes a month starting in January, he said, by adding one from Qatar, which currently supplies most of its shipments.
© OfficialAffairs
