KARACHI, Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday inaugurated the Country’s second Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at the Port Qasim built by the private sector.
Pakistan was importing 600 million cubic feet of LNG per day (mmcfd) through its first LNG terminal at Port Qasim. The new second terminal would handle another 600 mmcfd, taking the total import volume to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day.
While addressing the inaugural ceremony, the prime minister said the government was committed to resolve the issue of energy shortage and has successfully reduced the gap between demand and supply both in the electricity and natural gas. He said work was going on several power projects to overcome the challenge in shortest possible time.
Khaqan said when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government came into power in 2013 it was confronted with serious issues of power shortages, lawlessness and an economy in shambles.
However owing to the vision of its leadership and dedicated team the Country’s economy has turned around and today it gross domestic product (GDP) was vibrant at 5.3 percent, he added, and hoped to sustain it and take it up to 6 percent next year.
The prime minister said the government also confronted the challenge of terrorism head-on while the challenge of power shortages has been addressed with the import of the LNG.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said in 2013, the government was informed that it would take a minimum of seven years before any of its ambitious projects could take shape. However, he said it was the proud privilege of his government that it has completed all the projects on which it initiated the work.
The prime minister said the government was working on ways to produce electricity through different options, adding three more power stations that run on LNG would soon be operational add more electricity to be added the national grid. He said work on 1360 MW coal power project was also nearing completion.
In addition, the prime minister congratulated Pakistan Gas Port Limited (PGPL) Chairman Iqbal Z Ahmed on achieving this milestone and said he still has two more to cross.
Khaqan termed the LNG terminal a success story. He said all new terminals were in private sector and said the role of government was as a facilitator to the consumers and the suppliers. He said the government’s function was not to do business but to provide a regulatory framework.
The prime mistier said the LNG was the cheapest fuel available in the Country and would adequately meet the requirements of the commercial, industrial, domestic and the CNG sectors. He said there was a huge potential for investment in the LNG sector as the Country has a huge market for natural gas.
