Federal minister for petroleum and natural resources Shaihd Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) would be imported from Qatar at the rate of less than $5 per mmbtu.
Talking Pakistan Today Editor Arif in his Channel 24 talk show DNA, the minister said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would visit Qatar on Wednesday and Abbasi would probably accompany him on the visit. He said that the textile industry of Pakistan would not face any trouble getting Gas after December 2016.
“LNG is cheaper than the gas from Iran and TAPI [Turkemanistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline],” he said during the show.
Moreover, Abbasi said, five terminals would be established to import LNG from Qatar and that the process had been transparent since the start.
Abbasi, who headed PIA in 1990s, said that the privatisation of the national flag carrier was in the better interest of the airline. He said that the killing of PIA employees was tragic. He was of the view that the protest movement of employees could have been handled with more caution. He said that it was too difficult to run an airline in the public sector and especially under the rules that Pakistan was working under. Abbasi, who also served as CEO of the private airline Air Blue for more than 10 years, said that privatisation alone was the solution to improve the deteriorating conditions of the airline.
Commenting on the petroleum prices in Pakistan, he said that the petrol was cheaper in Pakistan compared to countries in the region including India and Bangladesh. He said that he would not comment on the demand of Imran Khan to further reduce the petroleum prices as he said that Khan was impossible to satisfy.