ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan addressed the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference 2020, Japan, through a video link.

In his keynote address, the federal minister said that Pakistan had been a gas producing country with daily production of over four billion cubic feet per day (BCFD), which was sufficient to meet its demands.

However, since, almost the last two decades, Pakistan has been facing shortage of gas supplies due to the yearly average decline of five percent in production, and steady growth in demand for domestic and commercial sector.

He said that Pakistan had been setting up gas pipeline infrastructure for import of gas to meet the gap between the supply and demand in the country.

The minister updated the audience on the key initiative of the current government to expand the footprint of private sector in the LNG sector as a prime mover in meeting the growing future gas demand in the country.

The minister apprised the participants about commissioning of new LNG terminals, and expansion of transport capacity of the existing RLNG pipeline by laying an additional pipeline with 1,600 MMCFD to evacuate additional RLNG volumes from the two existing terminals, and from the LNG terminals being developed by the private sector.

He said that the government had allowed the private sector to participate in utilising the gas network of Sui Companies via Third-Party Access dispensation, whereby, the private sector could import LNG, holding title of the commodity (LNG and RLNG), whereas, state-entities will provide re-gasification services at a tariff determined by the regulator.

More so, the government is encouraging the private sector to develop small-scale LNG supplies to meet off-grid gas demands through the LNG trucking commonly known as a virtual pipeline.

Small scale LNG would offer significant investment opportunities for the private sector.

In the conclusion, the minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team focused on improving the ease-of-doing-business and facilitating new-entrants in the country.

He voiced a hope that international investors would seek huge investment and business opportunities to cultivate open market regime in the LNG sector of Pakistan.

At past conferences, which had attracted more than 1,000 participants every year, including Cabinet ministers from approximately 30 countries and regions, the participants actively discussed issues pertaining to the LNG market as well as actions that producers and consumers should take to make the market more transparent and sustainable.

In 2020, the 9th LNG Producer-Consumer Conference had been held online for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The LNG Producer-Consumer Conference is an international event annually held by host countries, Japan and Qatar, since 2012.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020