Qatar will provide Pakistan three million ton Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) for 10 years as the two countries entered into an agreement on Friday.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday announced that Pakistan and Qatar had signed an LNG deal, saying that it will help the country save $300 million annually.
Prime Minister Imran Khan witnessed the signing of an agreement that took place here at the PM House.
The prime minister said that his government had been trying to negotiate this deal for the past one year.
Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan and Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi inked the agreement.
Qatar’s Minister al-Kaabi termed as “historic” the agreement with Pakistan and expressed confidence that it would open up new vistas of development.
He said Qatar would also promote bilateral cooperation in other areas of mutual interest.
Special Assistant to PM on Petroleum Nadeem Babar said the agreement would prove helpful in fulfilling Pakistan’s energy needs.
The state-owned petroleum corporation Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has entered into a long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Qatar Petroleum (QP), as per a letter submitted to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday.
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The deal has come as part of a bilateral Government-to-Government (G to G) agreement dated 25 February 2021, augmenting cooperation in the energy sector between Pakistan and Qatar.
The letter detailed that the SPA, wherein PSO is the nominated entity as per the G to G agreement, had been negotiated, finalized, and approved by the federal government.
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According to an official source, the new contract is for a period of 10 years and involves an LNG deal with Qatar at a 10.2 percent slope of Brent with an option of price renegotiation after four years.
‘Previous government, PMLN, had signed a long term deal with Qatar at 13.37 percent slope”, the official said.
The agreement is currently for two cargoes but will be extended to three cargoes for one year, and eventually for four cargoes from 2024 onwards.
Reality is that when prices are already down in market comparing with previous years’ prices they signed this new contract. If they would have signed this a few months back they could have saved even more but govt delayed it due to their inaction. Industry an home consumers suffered due to shortage and this caused Pakistan losses of millions govt won’t want you to think of
That’s very good for Pakistan’s Economy and will be helpful to do some good for Pakistani Awaam…