Qasim Terminal Holding, a subsidiary of Qatar Energy, plans to acquire a stake in Energas Terminal Pvt, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Energas’ terminal will be the country’s largest LNG terminal with a capacity to import one billion cubic feet of gas/year. Pakistan currently operates two LNG terminals, while Energas and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. are vying to build two more projects.
Engro set up Pakistan’s first LNG terminal at Port Qasim, which has been handling LNG imports from Qatar since 2015.
Qatar Petroleum is going to enter into partnership in setting up another LNG terminal at the port,” a Port Qasim official said.
“Owing to the fast widening gap between demand and supply of energy in the country, the government is pursuing aggressive LNG import plans.”
Over the last two years, Qatar Energy has expanded internationally, gaining stakes in oil and gas projects around the world by signing deals with major energy companies.
Last week, Qatar Energy signed a deal for a 40 per cent stake in one of ExxonMobil’s major offshore explorations in Canada.
Previously named Qatar Petroleum before recently rebranding, the state-owned energy giant, which supplies one in five LNG cargoes globally, raised $12.5 billion in its debut jumbo bond issuance in late June 2021’s biggest out of emerging markets.
The company signed a contract in February for the first phase of its North Field LNG expansion project, which aims at boosting Qatar’s LNG output to 126 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2027 from 77 mtpa currently.
