After major blow for January, Pakistan secures two LNG bids for February 2021

• Pakistan secures two LNG bids at prices higher than the price of diesel
• Industrial sources say government could have secured better prices for bidding process
• No bids were received for the first time from the LNG suppliers for the first half of January

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan got bids from five LNG trading companies for two LNG cargoes for February 2021 at the highest price of up to 32.4888% of Brent, as the country’s gas crisis continues to grow. 

At the time, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar had brushed aside concerns and had said that the government has a plan to avoid a gas crisis.

But Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) obtained the lowest bids for February 15-16 and February 23-24, 2021 at a price of 20.8483-23.4331% of Brent. 

PLL had sought bids for two LNG cargoes and it secured five bids from LNG trading companies out of which Total Company stood disqualified. The remaining four LNG trading companies that qualified for the bids included SOCAR, Trafigura, GUNVOR, and ENOC.

LNG trading company SOCAR gave the lowest bid for February 15-16 for $10.5 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu), while ENOC appeared with the lowest bid for February 23-24 for $11.70 per mmbtu. 

Here’s a list of all the bids:

GUNVOR – 25.5666% of Brent for February 15-16 and 23.5666% of Brent for February 23-24

ECNOC – no bid submitted for February 15-16. For February 23-24, it offered a bid at 20.8483% of Brent.

Trafigura – two bids submitted for two time slots with highest prices. It deposited its bid at 32.4888% of Brent for February 15-16 and 25.9777% of Brent for February 23-24, 2021.