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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will shortly invite bids for investors to build two large plants and retrofit another to handle imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), officials told Reuters on Thursday.
The government approved the first ever imports of LNG at a meeting on Wednesday, an official at the Ministry of Finance said, but it does not yet have the ability to handle the imports it plans to begin next year.
The nuclear-armed South Asian nation of 180 million people is in the grip of an energy crisis that plunges even the richest areas into blackouts several hours per day.
Angry Pakistanis frequently protest over the power cuts, which have eviscerated the country's textile industry. The government is keen to be seen to be tackling the problem before elections expected early next year.
The gas imports are intended to help ease the problem, the ministry of finance official said.
Pakistan plans to invite firms to bid for contracts to buy, transport and regassify natural gas to sell to state-run Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, another government official said.
The contracts would involve building the two terminals to regassify the LNG. Pakistan wants the new terminals to have a capacity of 400 millions of cubic feet per day (mmcfd) each.
The government will also invite bids to retrofit a third, already existing terminal at Karachi port, built to handle liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It has a capacity of 200 mmcfd.
Such terminals usually take more than a year to build but the official said that he hoped the retrofit could be completed within six months of whenever work commenced.
The bidding processes are expected to be finished by the end of the year, the official said. Pakistan has not yet decided where it will import the LNG from.
It is unclear how much money the country will save by retrofitting its LPG terminal, industry experts said, since the process is technically complicated.
The two substances require different tanks because LNG requires very cold temperatures and LPG is very flammable.
Pakistan to build 2 LNG plants, retrofit another to start imports
The government approved the first ever imports of LNG at a meeting on Wednesday, an official at the Ministry of Finance said, but it does not yet have the ability to handle the imports it plans to begin next year.
The nuclear-armed South Asian nation of 180 million people is in the grip of an energy crisis that plunges even the richest areas into blackouts several hours per day.
Angry Pakistanis frequently protest over the power cuts, which have eviscerated the country's textile industry. The government is keen to be seen to be tackling the problem before elections expected early next year.
The gas imports are intended to help ease the problem, the ministry of finance official said.
Pakistan plans to invite firms to bid for contracts to buy, transport and regassify natural gas to sell to state-run Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, another government official said.
The contracts would involve building the two terminals to regassify the LNG. Pakistan wants the new terminals to have a capacity of 400 millions of cubic feet per day (mmcfd) each.
The government will also invite bids to retrofit a third, already existing terminal at Karachi port, built to handle liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It has a capacity of 200 mmcfd.
Such terminals usually take more than a year to build but the official said that he hoped the retrofit could be completed within six months of whenever work commenced.
The bidding processes are expected to be finished by the end of the year, the official said. Pakistan has not yet decided where it will import the LNG from.
It is unclear how much money the country will save by retrofitting its LPG terminal, industry experts said, since the process is technically complicated.
The two substances require different tanks because LNG requires very cold temperatures and LPG is very flammable.
Pakistan to build 2 LNG plants, retrofit another to start imports
