Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Wednesday underlined the need for early completion of the North-South gas pipeline project to deal with the growing gas demand of power and industrial sectors of the country. The minister, who is on an official visit to Russia, along with a delegation of Petroleum Ministry, talking to Business Recorder by phone here, said that he met with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and Russian Minister for Energy.
He said in meetings with Russian officials, Pakistan sought Russian co-operation on construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipelines, oil/gas exploration, power generation and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) air-mix projects. Russia on October 16, 2015 had signed an agreement with Pakistan to build a 1,100 kilometres North-South LNG pipeline with a capacity to carry 1.4 Billion Cubic Feet per Day (BCFD) of LNG which will cost $2 billion and first phase of the project is expected to complete in December 2017 and second by December 2018.
"The government wants to start construction work on the North-South pipeline as early as possible so that the first phase of the LNG pipeline could be completed by December 2017," he said. The pipeline will transport 12.4 billion cubic feet of LNG per annum out of which half would be used to generate 3,600 Megawatts (MW) electricity, while the rest of the volume would be supplied to CNG, fertiliser and industrial sectors of Punjab.
"We have met the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Energy, and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of leading Russian upstream and down stream companies including Gazprom, Rosneft, Rostec, Rusgaz and EXIAR. We also held meeting with the CEO of RTGR which is Contractor for the North-South pipeline project," Abbasi said.
The Petroleum Ministry delegation also included Managing Director (MD) Pakistan State Oil (PSO), MD Inter State Gas System (ISGS) and Joint Secretary (JS) Ministry of Petroleum. "The pipeline has great significance for Pakistan to further strengthen its national economy and meeting the energy needs," he said. Russian official apprised the minister about Russia's expertise in developing energy infrastructure as well as in oil and gas sector. Russia has also offered Pakistan to supply LNG to bridge increasing gap between demand and supply of gas in the country. He said that the Russian company constructing the pipeline would be directed to start construction work on the pipeline as early as possible.
He said Pakistan would look into Russian offer to supply LNG, adding that the government's foremost priority was to complete construction of the pipeline. The government of Pakistan to deal with the severe gas shortage in the country has constructed first LNG terminal at Port Qasim Karachi with a capacity to handle up to 600 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) of LNG, while another terminal will be completed by 2017 with a capacity to handle 500 MMCFD of LNG. The 1100-km long pipeline will be dedicated for the transportation of LNG from Karachi to Lahore.