In a public hearing organised by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on petitions for grant of licences for construction and establishment of two LNG re-gasification terminals at Port Qasim Karachi, all the stakeholders have supported the issuance of licences and unanimously asked the authority to expedite the process of grant of licences to private investors.
Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Monday held public hearing on petitions for grant of licences for construction and establishment of an LNG re-gasification terminal including all allied facilities at Port Qasim, Karachi. The hearing was presided over by Chairman Ogra, Masroor Khan, was attended by Member Gas Muhammad Arif, Member Oil Zainulabideen Qureshi and a number of large consumer groups like cement producers, CNG station operators, power companies and textile industry.
Two petitioners Tabeer Energy Private Limited (TEPL) and M/s Energas Terminal Private Limited (ETPL) applied under Ogra (LNG) Rules, 2007 for grant of licence. The petitioners have sought licence as LNG Developers which shall purchase LNG supplies, re-gasify the same through its LNG Terminal and supply RLNG to the domestic market and own use.UN sends 90 truckloads of aid to NW Syria via Turkey
The petitioners have required construction licence from Ogra before taking final investment decisions (FIDs) on setting up of LNG terminals at designated sites as all other regulatory processes have already been completed. The licence would allow the developers to set up terminals, purchase LNG supplies, re-gasify it through proposed LNG Terminals and supply RLNG to the domestic market and use themselves in their sister companies.
Both applicants said they had their own customers in the private sector and would arrange LNG imports without any liability to the government by utilising the pipeline network of gas utilities. Both parties declined to share the name of manufacturers of Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) saying this could hamper their business plans.
Saad Qazi the representative of Tabeer said that the company was targeting to make their terminal operational in 24 months, based on the issuance of construction licence. Qazi said the project will take little longer because the company will also have to construct a 24 kilometres pipeline including 19-km offshore pipeline from Chan Bundo Island where the terminal will be put up. Canada court rules hijab ban legal for public servants
The terminal will have tie-in facility with Sui Southern Gas Pipeline network at Port Qasim. It will have 750-1000 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) capacity for which Mitsubishi led consortium had their own gas customers including a spare portion for other private customers. He said about 500 mmcfd RLNG would be supplied to Northern and almost equivalent to Southern parts of the country.
He said the talks were in progress with SSGCL and SNGPL for gas transportation agreement. He said that company had MoU with world-class terminal providers and also signed MoU with SNGPL and had understanding with SSGCL to operate in gas sector.
The company said, Tabeer’s terminal would be the first fully integrated terminal where LNG import, re-gasifications and sales would be handled by the company itself and provide massive savings in foreign exchange to the government without any off-take guarantees. Regasified liquefied natural gas would be transported to the customers using the new North-South Pipeline being undertaken by the government in collaboration with Russia. ‘Great loss’ for Africa: Leaders mourn Chad’s president
The representative of the Energas, Ansar Khan said his company had secured the licence, land allocation and related regulatory approvals for setting up of LNG terminal of its own in 2022 and provide cheaper fuel to its partner group companies who were holding their multiple business projects to unreliable energy supplies. They include Lucky Group, Younas Brothers, Sapphire Group and Halmore and so on who did not get gas supply and had to rely on furnace oil to meet export orders and domestic production. He said his would-be the third FSRU but the first wholly private sector owned project that would strengthen the LNG supply chain in the country as the existing two terminals had 600mmcfd each capacity contracted to the government. He said the country’s existing terminals capacity utilisation was the highest in the world having no downstream storage that could have serious supply problems in case of any outage or problem.
The participants representing business groups from cement, transport and textile sectors said the applicants should be allowed new terminals to induct additional RLNG in to system and unlock a number of projects waiting in the sideline due to gas shortages. PM Imran to inaugurate various projects in KP tomorrow
All the stakeholders unanimously asked the authority to expedite the process of grant of licences to private investors. They argued that it was imperative to meet the future energy demand of the country that private sector should be encourage to import and supply LNG to various sector of economy.
