As many as 33 cargoes carrying around 103,864,259mmbtu Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) have arrived in Pakistan since July 2015, official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources disclosed on Sunday.

The LNG was being imported by the Pakistan State Oil under competitive bidding and through short and long term contracts, while more LNG terminals would be set to enhance Pakistan’s LNG import capability, they added.

Nowadays, they said, LNG was the essential part of the energy mix needs of emerging economies, adding that the world was turning towards LNG and emerging economies such as China, Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, European Union, and Brazil have ensured that LNG remained part of their energy mix.

They said Japan was importing 80 million tonnes of LNG every year (MTPA) and India 15 MTPA due to the commodity’s cheap price and efficiency as compared to other fuels.

In 2015, they sources said, Pakistan signed a 15-year agreement with Qatar to import up to 3.75 million tonnes of LNG a year, which was being highly appreciated by the business community. The country’s total gas production is around 4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) against the demand of 8bcfd, showing a demand-supply gap of four bcfd.

Justifying the LNG import deal, they said in Pakistan’s natural gas accounts for 35 percent of all power generation, 23.8 percent of industrial use, 15.6 percent fertilizer, 5.4 percent CNG and 18.1 percent for households.

The current gas shortfall is about four bcfd or 33, they said, adding that Pakistan’s indigenous gas supply was expected to deplete to 1,500 MMSCFD in 2030 from 4,000 MMSCFD today and the demand supply gap is expected to reach 7,000 MMSCFD in the next 15 years, as the existing gas reserves are depleting fast.

Source: Daily Times