LNG-focused energy plan

In an initiative that is meant to boost alternative energy sector in Pakistan, President Musharraf has okayed an LNG-specific energy plan which envisages import of LNG and the setting up of a countrywide network to ensure supply of this highly cost-effective fuel for both our industrial and domestic consumption.
According to a Recorder Report, the President approved the plan while presiding over a high-powered meeting held to review the progress made on the availability of cheaper sources of energy to industrial, commercial and other consumers. A Dubai-based group has reportedly committed an investment of $211 million for setting up a separate berth at Port Qasim in Karachi for handling specifically imported LNG and its countrywide distribution.
A study on cost-effectiveness of LNG and LPG has, meanwhile, demonstrated that these can become major resources in the future for supplementing the gas production to ensure its uninterrupted, speedy and inexpensive supply. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is said to be a more cost-effective alternative to both oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Further, natural gas has been rightly termed a fuel of choice of 21st century for being environmentally friendly. The current world-wide gas reserves are estimated at 4,900 trillion cubic feet. Pakistan too has huge gas reserves, which have fuelled its economy over decades. Starting with the Sui gas fields in the early 1950s, Pakistan has since developed an extensive transmission and distribution infrastructure.
Use of natural gas, which is cleaner and less carbon intensive than oil or coal, is growing faster than the use of any other fossil fuel. Technological innovation and economic and regulatory changes have resulted in gas becoming the preferred fuel. Natural gas is a highly desirable energy source also in that it burns cleanly with less pollution than other hydrocarbon fuels. Pipeline transportation, which has been the dominant mode over decades, has come to be regarded as not an economically feasible option for transporting gas across oceans.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has instead proved itself to be a commercially viable technology for transporting gas. And its consumption is increasing even faster than that of piped gas, making it likely that LNG's share of total gas consumption will substantially increase over the next 10 to 15 years.
In fact LNG markets seem to be already entering a new phase of expansion, with a more diversified range of customers and suppliers. LNG can be unloaded only at specialised terminals, which typically include a jetty and unloading facilities. Hence the need to build an LNG terminal at Port Qasim.
Pakistan's present energy mix has the highest share, ie 50 percent of gas. With the switchover to LNG, the ratio may go up still further. Secondly, with the rapid rise in the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and large-scale depletion of the ozone belt, governments have started exploring environmentally friendly sources of energy. Serious efforts have already been mounted world-wide to harness solar and wind energy for its industrial and domestic use. However, it will take Pakistan considerable time before it can effectively tap these abundant, but cheap, sources of energy.
While the LNG-specific energy plan approved by the President is a step in the right direction, it seems that the initiative has been prompted by the Dubai-based group's offer to set up a separate berth at Port Qasim to handle imported LNG. As launching and operating "front companies" to reap huge profits through influence peddling is not an unknown phenomenon in this part of the world, it would serve the country's interest better if the government closely scrutinised the antecedents of the Dubai group before accepting its offer. Perhaps an open bidding mechanism should be adopted to secure better results.