Winter blues: Consumers may get gas for 6 hours only in Jan

ISLAMIC CITY: Officials from Pakistan’s energy ministry told The News that the country may not have enough LNG from Azerbaijan’s state-owned company SOCAR to meet its needs in January 2024, just in time for winter.

Before the LNG cargo stopped coming, the country was expected to have a gas shortage of 360 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) in December 2023. This will rise to 470 MMCFD in January 2024, even though gas supply was limited to the domestic sector for only 8 hours during cooking times.

Now, the government has to cut the amount of gas available to the domestic sector from eight hours to six hours because SOCAR cargo isn’t scheduled to be available in January. This will make the gas crisis even worse.

“The vibes coming from SOCAR suggest that it may not be able to offer the price of distressed LNG cargo for January,” the officials in charge said.

A GtG deal was made with the Azerbaijani company SOCAR when Shehbaz Sharif was prime minister. As part of the deal, SOCAR agreed to send one LNG ship every month.