Notwithstanding the initial successful flow of the fuel into the national network, the government’s project of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) has revealed a number of legal, logistical and operational issues.As various agencies and ministries struggle to resolve a series of problems at the port, in the gas transmission system and on the legal front, the Qatar Gas has declined to dispatch Q-Flex ship loaded with LNG for the time being. As an emergency solution, the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has requested Engro Corporation’s subsidiary Engro Elengy Terminal Limited (EETL) to hurriedly unload its Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU) so that it could be dispatched to the Middle East for another LNG refill. After nearly a week of back-to-back news conferences by the petroleum minister, we now have to contend with the refusal of the new managing director at SNGPL — the company that is tasked with distributing the imported gas to key customers who need it the most in Punjab — to go along with the plan that has been drawn up by the minister. One almost feels like sympathising with the minister at this point. He has shared with the country the difficulties he is faced with in arranging long-term supplies of gas, and putting in place proper systems for importing and distributing it. There are powerful vested interests, we are told, who are stymieing his efforts because they profit from the country’s dependence on oil. There are bureaucratic hurdles and lack of cooperation from other government departments and ministries. But the only thing that really registers with the public is that after building an LNG import terminal “in record time” and then bragging endlessly about it, the government is stuck with a terminal and no long-term supply of gas.
The minister ought to dilate upon some of the points he made in his news conferences recently. He said a “mafia” tried to bribe him to prevent the LNG import terminal, that it asked him to sign a summary that would have damaged the terminal’s operational chances. He should name this mafia and tell us about the contents of that summary if he wants these allegations to be taken seriously. He should also explain what role the domestic gas-pricing regime is playing in defeating his efforts to arrange long-term supplies. He should also answer why much of this work was not done in the 18 months during which the terminal was under construction, and why we have had one deadline after another since then but no functioning arrangement of the sort that was promised to us. Given the aplomb with which the government congratulated itself upon seeing the terminal through to the start of commercial operations, it is now incumbent upon the authorities to either complete the remaining formalities or come up with a viable road map for utilising this capacity.
pk.shafaqna.com
