Hammad Azhar, the minister of energy, tweeted that the new LNG terminals will be based on business-to- business model and the previous models will not be used. These measures will enhance the efficiency of the system, and also prove to be less costly.
The new LNG approvals were fast-tracked after Tabish Gauhar, SAPM of power and petroleum, resigned.
Minister for Energy, who recently undertook a visit to Russia, further tweeted that steps have been taken in finalising details of the North-South pipeline with the Russians.
The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) on March 26, 2021 ordered MoMA to instantly fix the issues that are the reason of the delay of establishment of new LNG terminals in the inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Maritime Affairs.
The committee short-listed all the major problems and suggested a solution for each of them. The first inter-ministerial meeting was held on December 12, 2019, co-chaired by Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan and SAPM (Petroleum) Nadeem Babar to facilitate the new terminal developers in their work.
Afterwards, fifteen inter-ministerial meetings took place from December 2019 till August 2021. In the first meeting, the issue with all the pending NOCs was solved but a few major issues still remain.
According to MoMA, the Federal Cabinet and the oil and gas regulatory authority advised to allocate pipeline capacity and initiate new planned pipeline establishment as soon as possible.
The break-up for the official notice for the capacity of the pipeline available for the new LNG developers is as follows: (i) total pipeline capacity of SNGPL- 1200 MMCFD; (II) long-term contract till 2024- 1000 MMCFD; (iii) gas being provided to K-Electric – 150 MMCFD ;(iv) gas being provided to SSGC- 250 MMCFD; and (v) available pipeline capacity- 1200 MMCFD.
MoMA has stated that as per the directions of the OGRA, SNGPL must allocate 250-300 MMCFD pipeline capacity to each of the new LNG terminal developers. Land should be provided for the establishment of fire-fighting station & tie-in-point to the new LNG terminal developers on the same terms & conditions on which the tie- in- points were allocated to the earlier existing terminals by the SSGC. Gas Transmission Agreement (GTA) is to be signed by both the developers with SSGC and SNGPL within 15 days. Also the new developers should close their FIDs within two months of signing of the GTA.
