Pakistan Issues Emergency LNG Tender for Two Cargoes as Power Crisis Deepens

Pakistan on Wednesday issued a tender seeking to urgently buy two LNG cargoes for delivery later this month as the country struggles to cope with a gas and power crisis amid disrupted LNG supplies from the Middle East.

Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), the state-owned company procuring LNG from international markets, issued a tender on Wednesday inviting bids from LNG suppliers for the supply of LNG on a Delivered Ex-Ship (DES) basis at Port Qasim, Karachi.

Pakistan is seeking to buy one LNG cargo for delivery in the window May 12-14, 2026, and another shipment for delivery between May 24 and May 26, 2026. Each cargo would contain 140,000 cubic meters of LNG.

The rush to import a new LNG cargo as soon as next week is the result of the energy crisis that the Middle Eastern conflict inadvertently created in Pakistan.

The country has relied on Qatar’s term LNG supply for years, but the war in the Middle East has led to the shutdown of Qatari LNG production and exports.

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Spot LNG prices in Asia have surged since the war in Iran trapped all Middle Eastern LNG supply from Qatar and the UAE behind the Strait of Hormuz.

Still, Pakistan has moved to tap the spot market for the first time in nearly three years as the lack of fixed-term Qatari supply has triggered a power crisis and widespread outages.

Despite the high spot LNG prices for Asia, Pakistan appears to have no choice but to tap the spot market for the first time since 2023 as the energy crisis has intensified in recent weeks with power outages and fuel rationing.

Last week, Pakistan welcomed the first LNG cargo in almost two months as an LNG carrier docked at the GasPort terminal in what was the first relief to the energy crisis in the country.

Now the country is looking for two other LNG cargoes to help ease the crisis.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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