Pakistan floats LNG tender to meet winter demand

Pakistan on Monday floated an urgent international tender for a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargo in the first part of January to meet anticipated peak winter shortage in the residential sector. The tender, issued by the state-run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) with a four-day notice, asked bidders to submit technical and financial bids by Nov 24 for a standard LNG cargo with targeted delivery on Jan 8-9, and the bids would be opened the same day. Last month, after about a year-long gap, Pakistan received three bids for two additional LNG cargoes for peak winter demand at a significantly higher premium over the prevailing spot market. The government accepted two lower-evaluated bids to minimise winter gas shortages following a decline in domestic gas production and to maintain load management at a level similar to that experienced in the winter of the previous year. LNG trader Trafigura Pte Ltd submitted two bids for the Dec 7-8 window and the Dec 13-14 window at $18.39 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and $19.39 per mmBtu, respectively. On the other hand, Vitol Bahrain offered a bid price of $15.97 per mmBtu for the Dec 7-8 delivery window.