Tabeer Energy, a unit of Mitsubishi Corp, and Energas have sent requests to the government for building LNG terminals in Karachi. Energas, a venture that includes Lucky Group, Sapphire and Halmore, plans to build the terminal with Exxon Mobil Corp.
This was revealed by Mahmood Moulvi, an adviser to the ministry of maritime affairs revealed, reported Bloomberg.
Port Qasim Authority’s (PQA) final date of acceptance of its Letter of Intent was the 25th of October. Energas, a buyers consortium lead by Lucky cement and Sapphire, is the leading candidate to win the award. Energas has been working with Exxon Mobil in Pakistan and is a buyer’s consortium with demand from its independent power producers (IPPs), textile, cement, and automobile manufacturing plants. With the acceptance of the Letter of Intent, PQA will be able to charge a concession fee of Rs. 1.6 billion rupees from each of the developers.
According to the details, the companies will have to pay $10 million in fees and build the terminal within 24 months. The above-mentioned companies’ bid will be sent for approval for constructions after the conditions are fulfilled.
This concession fee will be used to widen and deepen the existing LNG channel. With a third terminal being developed at Port Qasim current terminal operators will be under significant pressure as the new terminal is being developed without any financial commitments from the government.
The existing terminals at PQA charge the government $100 million (Engro) and $97 million for gas per annum for the next 15 years. The adviser further revealed that if any future terminal is to be built, they will have to meet these conditions.
