The development comes after no bids were received for the first time from LNG suppliers for the first half of January. At the time, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar had brushed aside concerns and had said that the government has a plan to avoid a gas crisis.
But Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) obtained the lowest bids for February 15-16 and February 23-24, 2021 at a price of 20.8483-23.4331% of Brent.
PLL had sought bids for two LNG cargoes and it secured five bids from LNG trading companies out of which Total Company stood disqualified. The remaining four LNG trading companies that qualified for the bids included SOCAR, Trafigura, GUNVOR, and ENOC.
LNG trading company SOCAR gave the lowest bid for February 15-16 for $10.5 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu), while ENOC appeared with the lowest bid for February 23-24 for $11.70 per mmbtu.
GUNVOR - 25.5666% of Brent for February 15-16 and 23.5666% of Brent for February 23-24
ECNOC - no bid submitted for February 15-16. For February 23-24, it offered a bid at 20.8483% of Brent.
Trafigura - two bids submitted for two time slots with highest prices. It deposited its bid at 32.4888% of Brent for February 15-16 and 25.9777% of Brent for February 23-24, 2021.
A report by the The News quoted independent industrial sources as saying that better prices could have been attracted by the government if it had arranged the bidding for spot cargoes for winter in September 2020.
“The government obtained the LNG prices at more than the diesel price as LNG cargoes are already booked across the globe," the source said.
Australia's Gorgan company which produced an estimated 16.5 million tons to 18 million tons of LNG per year has shut down, sources said. This had created an LNG shortage in the international market so trading companies are unable to submit bids at reasonable prices.
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