In a move to meet the country’s growing energy needs, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL), has invited bids for four Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes from international suppliers in July.

Suppliers are asked to submit bids by June 23, while bids are invited from reputed companies to ship cargo on a Delivered Ex-Ship basis (DES) at Port Qasim, Karachi, stated PLL.

The company is seeking the first cargo during a delivery window of 3-4 July, second cargo for 08-09 July, third cargo for 25-26 July, and the last cargo for 30-31 July, documents showed.

Each cargo is to have a volumetric quantity of 140,000m3, added PLL, which has been mandated by the government of Pakistan to carry out the business of importing, buying, storing, supplying, distributing, transporting, transmitting, processing, measuring, metering and selling natural gas, LNG and re-gasified LNG.

In this capacity, PLL procures LNG from international markets and enters into onward arrangements for the supply of gas to end-users, thereby managing the whole supply chain of LNG from procurement to end-users.

Earlier this month, PLL for technical reasons disqualified the two bids it received for a tender seeking one spot cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for delivery in early July.

Back then, an offer from TotalEnergies was disqualified because it did not submit a bid bond and the ENOC Singapore bid was disqualified because it did not provide “proof of delivery of eight LNG cargoes”, PLL said in documents on its website.

It is pertinent to mention that amid supply-chain disruptions globally owing to the Russia-Ukraine war, prices of energy commodities including LNG have skyrocketed.

On the other hand, Pakistan is dealing with fuel shortages, particularly in its power sector, as electricity consumption spikes in the summer months, leading to power outages across the country.