'Proposal to develop LNG storage facilities under consideration'

In a bid to meet the energy requirements of the country, a proposal to develop liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities is under consideration of the federal government, said an official of Petroleum Division. There are reservoirs of petroleum products in the country but no LNG storage facility which is beyond comprehension.
In an informal meeting with the media persons last week, Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan said LNG coming in vessels was offloaded at a terminal and injected into transmission lines directly for onward supply to consumers and there must be LNG stock. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has projected to enhance the petroleum products storage capacity of the country to 600,000 metric tonnes in next two to three years but there is no LNG storage capacity. He further said that Saudi investors were not only interested in LNG import but also wanted to invest in construction of LNG storage capacity.
In order to attract investment in storage development, the OGRA in the last three years granted 41 licences for storage construction to the interested companies and kept on monitoring the projects of its licensees to have the sustainable logistics. The steps have resulted in addition of around 288,733 metric tonnes storage in the system (petrol 102,031 metric tonnes and diesel 186,802 metric tonnes) since petrol crisis in 2015 and more than 600,000 metric tonnes of storage is expected to be completed within next two to three years.
Pakistan's LNG imports surged 33 percent in December 2018. Early LNG imports have been substituting for domestic gas, but the intention is to raise the share of gas in the nation's energy mix by reducing the use of polluting and inefficient furnace oil and expensive diesel oil as power station fuels and increasing the LNG purchases.
Gas market in Pakistan is growing with the introduction of LNG and is expected to double in the next five to seven years at 8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd).
In a market of this size, an energy expert said, consisting of both local production as well as imports, the issue of gas storage becomes important. The LNG imports under the take or pay contract have enhanced the need for building gas storages in Pakistan. While local production can vary according to demand, imported LNG has to be consumed as per contractual conditions from exporting companies and countries.