ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received costliest bids for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in February 2021 up to 32.48 percent of Brent with a 31-day gap between opening of tender and advertisement.

The Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) invited bids from international suppliers for the supply of two LNG cargoes on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis at Port Qasim, Karachi.

The advertisement was given on November 28, 2020.

Extremely high bids were received for two LNG cargoes for the slots of February 15-16, 2021, and February 23-24, 2021 from four LNG suppliers.

A total of five envelops were received at the closing of bid on December 28, 2020. The highest price was quoted by Trafigura, which offered bids for the two slots of February 15-16 at 32.4888 percent of Brent and 25.9777 percent of Brent for February 23-24.

Second highest bid was offered by Gunver, which quoted 25.5666 percent of Brent for the slot of February 15-16, and 23.5666 percent of Brent for February 23-24 slot.

The SOCAR offered bids at 23.4331 percent of Brent for the slot of February 15-16, 2021, and 22.1142 percent of Brent for the slot of February 23-24.

Whereas, the ENOC gave the bid at 20.8483 percent of Brent for the February 23-24 slot.

Earlier, Trafigura offered bids for two slots of January 20-21 at 27.2727 percent of Brent and for January 29-February 01 at 33.9499 percent of Brent.

The SOCAR offered bids at 20.4832 percent of Brent only for the last time slot of January 29-February 01, 2021, the ENOC gave the bid at 24.8888 percent of Brent for January 29-February 01. On December 11, 2020, the Petroleum Division issued a statement saying that the time between the bid opening and the delivery date is not the price determinant; the main driver is global demand and supply. It further states that a total number of 11 cargoes are secured for January 2021. The PLL was also working on making arrangements for two more cargoes for January 2021.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020