ISLAMABAD  -  To meet the gas demand in the winter season, the caretaker government has floated another tender for delivery of additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from spot market for the month of January.

The state owned Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) has invited bids from international suppliers for the delivery of one LNG cargo from spot market during the first month of 2024.

In the tender for LNG procurement, invited by Pakistan LNG Limited, a company of Petroleum Division, international companies have called for LNG supply bids for January 8 to 9 delivery. The tender of PLL is for the supply of one LNG cargo on a delivered-exship (DES) basis to Port Qasim in Karachi in January. The final date for the submission of bids was November 24 and it was opened the same day.

It is worth noting that to ease the gas shortage during the peak winter month of December, the caretaker had already procured two cargoes from the international spot market at up to $19.39/MMBtu.

After several failed attempts in getting bids for over one year, Pakistan LNG Limited had finally succeeded in receiving three bids, in October, from two international bidders for LNG supply from spot market for December 7 to 8 and December 13 to 14 deliveries.

For the first window of December 7 to 8, two bidders namely Trafigura Pte Limited and Vitol Bahrain have offered two bids. Trafigura offered $18.39/MMBtu, while Vitol offered $15.97/MMBtu for the deliveries of LNG for 7 to 8 December window. 

For the second window of December 13 to 14, single bid was received from Trafigura Pte Limited at $19.39/MMBtu. For the first window of December 7 to 8, Vitol Bahrain has been selected being lowest bidder at $15.97/MMBtu.

For the second window of December 13 to 14, single bid from Trafigura Pte Limited at $19.39/MMBtu was accepted.

It is also worth noting that since July 2022, Pakistan had to scrap several tenders for the procurement of LNG from the international market owing to its high price or due to no response from the international bidders. The international companies have almost stopped selling LNG to Pakistan as the country was on the verge of default and high LNG prices in the international spot market.