Petroleum Division devises plan to mitigate LNG shortage

ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division has chalked out a plan to control the shortage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) under which Terminal-II will provide a maximum 600 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) re-gasified LNG during the closure of Terminal-1.

In a statement on Tuesday, the division said that normal supplies from the first terminal will resume from July 5, and the total supply from both terminals will be 1,152 MMCFD.

During the shortage, gas companies are authorised to manage their load as per government approved gas supply priority order whereby uninterrupted supplies will be made to domestic, commercial, power and export industry.

In order to meet the shortfall, gas companies are curtailing supplies to the non-export industry, fertiliser, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and cement.

According to the division’s RLNG shortfall mitigation plan during dry docking of existing Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) of a private LNG terminal, the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) of the first terminal is going for dry docking from June 29 to July 5 during which there will be a reduction in LNG supplies from the first terminal.

However, supplies from the second terminal will continue to be at its contracted capacity of 600 MMCFD. Similarly, during the first two days of complete closure of the first terminal, the second terminal will provide maximum supplies. The total supply from both the LNG terminals will gradually ramp-up to 824 MMCFD from July 4.

As per petroleum division, some additional indigenous gas supplies are also being injected in the system during this period. Similarly, the power generation demand during the dry docking will also be catered through Furnace Oil (LSFO/HSFO) and High-Speed Diesel (HSD).

The division has directed the refineries to maximise their production capacity in this period and these have increased their regular supplies for the power plants. The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has been asked to maximise supplies to the power sector.

In order to augment indigenous supplies the PSO has been directed to float tenders for two cargoes of HSFO, which are expected to deliver during July 12 – July 20 -and July 12 – July 31, respectively. PSO has also tendered two cargoes of LSFO, expected to deliver product during July 7 – July 15 and July 16 – July 25, respectively.

Moreover, oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) companies have been asked to enhance production within possible limits.

Ahmad Ahmadani
Ahmad Ahmadani
The author is a an investigative journalist at Profit. He can be reached at [email protected].

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