Pakistan is in talks with multiple countries, including Russia, to sign a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import agreement in order to alleviate the country’s ongoing energy supply crisis.
According to Bloomberg, the Ministry of Energy will go for the ‘most favourable deal’ and is considering government-to-government contracts for importing the gas.
This action came as Pakistan battles blackouts caused by a fuel crisis caused by long-term suppliers’ failure to deliver shipments. To keep the lights on, the government previously resorted to purchasing LNG on the spot market, incurring debt that endangers worsening inflation on a massive scale.
The government of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, which took office on April 11, hopes to capture a new long-term LNG contract to help reduce fuel costs. Long agreements are remarkably affordable than existing spot pricing, while market participants also anticipate that this will provide some relaxation to the government.
