Pakistan State Oil (PSO) here on Friday got the highest-ever bid from the Qatar Petroleum (QP) Trading at 34.6688 percent of the Brent that translates into $25.30 per MMBtu for spot LNG cargo required to be delivered for September 16-17.
The state-owned entity also received the bid price from VITOL at 24.5456 percent of Brent, meaning $17.91 MMBtu for the other spot LNG cargo for the delivery window of 26-27 September. Both the bids PSO got are costlier if compared with the price of LNG cargo at 22.1311pc PSO procured from the QP Trading for 29-30 August.
Interestingly, against the tender for two LNG cargoes, one for delivery window for September 16-17 and other for September 26-27, one bidder for each time slot appeared on the scene. The QP Trading, the one and only company, came up with the bid at price of 34.6688 percent of the Brent for the LNG cargo to be delivered on September 16-17 and VITOL came up with its bid price at 24.5456 percent of the Brent for delivery on September 26-27.
When contacted, the spokesman of Pakistan State Oil said: “We will go to the Board with bids received for decision if PSO procures the LNG cargoes with the said bid price or not. And we will put forward the supply demand situation globally and accordingly, the board will take decisions.” Asked if PSO will scratch down the tender and go for another seeking bids at the lower side, he said it was too early to comment on the outcome of the decision as the board of directors will decide about it.
However, a Petroleum Division official said that PSO and PLL, being public sector entities, are bound to issue tenders for spot purchase of LNG one month back, and the bids are opened after 30 days. Under the PPRA rules, PSO is bound to hold up the LNG bids prices for 15 days for which the LNG bidders add premium in the bid price, causing more surge in LNG price. If the board decides to issue a short tender by involving the emergency clause of PPRA rules, then PSO will go for short tender as was done in the last case.
PSO earlier got the bid at $20.055 equal to 27.9pc of the Brent for the slot of August 29-30 but it cancelled it because the bid price was on higher side and then it went for emergency tender and managed one spot LNG cargo at $15.9271 per MMBtu from Qatar Petroleum Trading in response to its short tender that opened here on Thursday. The Qatar Petroleum (QP) Trading is the only one bidder that appeared with its bid at price of 22.1311pc of the Brent.
