Ongoing oil slump aids Pakistan’s energy woes

By
Maggie Lewis
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100
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Since 2014, the prices of Liquified Natural Gas have fallen. While this has become problematic for importers, it is exactly what countries like Pakistan needs to end its shortage of power. Pakistani officials predict that the ongoing oil slump will end the nation’s energy crisis in two years.

Pakistan plans to import over 20 million tons of super-chilled gas annually, which is enough to power about 66% of the country’s power plants that need 24,000 megawatts to keep running. Before the oil slump, half of the nation’s plant generators were left stagnant.

“The energy crisis will be solved before the government’s term ends in 2018,” said Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “When a customer comes to us asking for gas, we can say, yes, we will deliver gas to you on this date. Earlier we said there is no gas, goodbye.”

The gas imports will partly be used in the construction of coal-powered electricity plants that will, in the long run, keep steel, textile, and fertilizer plants in operation. In the past, outages last over 18 hours, crippling the country’s important sources of exports.

About 60 million cubic feet per day of LNG will be allotted for textile firms. Textile amounts to over half of the country’s total exports which sharply declined by 15% in the beginning of the second quarter of 2015.

LNG is a natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage and transport. Natural’s main difference from crude oil is that the former is cleaner because it produces less carbon dioxide. According to Sulzer, a long-time partner of the IBBC-member Unaoil, LNG has several processes in its extraction stage, which include pumping, separation, and mixing.

If everything goes accordingly, Pakistan will become one of the world’s top buyers of LNG. The country started buying LNG using a makeshift facility last year, and two more are planning on being completed by 2017. Pakistan got its first large shipment of LNG last year.

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