ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is expected to witness a serious gas crisis in February as the Italy-based LNG trading company, ENI, has informed that it will cancel its scheduled February 6-7, claiming force majeure. LNG cargo will not be able to deliver. Khabar reported on Monday, quoting a senior Energy Ministry official.
“The gas deficit will widen as imported LNG will decrease to 700 mmcfd as only five cargoes, at 13.37% Brent price, and 2 cargoes, Brent under GTG agreements with Qatar. at 10.2%, will be available in February. There will be no LNG cargo from ENI at a cost of 12.14% in the month of February. And this will increase the gas crisis in the country.
The news has alarmed the top mandarins of the petroleum division as the country is already facing a severe gas crisis. The crisis is affecting domestic consumers in some key cities, with no pressure.
The government, under its Gas Load Management Plan, promised to supply gas to domestic consumers for cooking hours in winter – three hours from 6 am to 9 am, lunch from 12 noon to 2 am. for, and three hours from 6 pm to 9 pm for dinner. The facts on the ground say otherwise.
Concerned officials say that ENI’s backing will impact supply to the power sector and the expected supply of 325mmcfd next month will not be available to the sector.
Dependence on furnace oil based electricity will increase and consumers will get expensive electricity. 50% gas will be supplied to captive power plants and supply to fertilizer plants, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and local industries will remain shut.
Earlier, the Petroleum Division had claimed that ENI would not default from January 2023, but this is not the case.
When contacted, an ENI spokesperson also confirmed the development, saying: “The February delivery disruption is beyond ENI’s reasonable control and is due to a force majeure event. ENI is in no way affected by this situation.” There is no benefit.
According to the senior official, ENI defaulted five times in 2022; It failed to deliver LNG cargo in the months of March, May, July, September and November.
