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Port Qasim to charge LNG firms $1m fee

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Islamabad: The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) has decided to charge $1 million (Rs105m) as processing fee to grant no-objection certificate (NOC) to companies to use its terminal for import of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

This was conveyed to a 13-member task force constituted by the government for LNG import and was led by Secretary Petroleum Abid Saeed which held its first meeting here on Tuesday.

The meeting was called to improve consultations between the Port Qasim Authority and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) for construction of new terminal and utilisation of existing capacity of the port.

The meeting was informed that the PQA had previously issued NOC to a number of LNG import contenders on the persuasions of the ministry of petroleum and allocated capacity utilisation and even signed implementation agreements with the spirit of facilitation but all of them failed to comply with requirements of the agreements.

“All the previous parties did not take steps to implement their agreements or import LNG,” the PQA is reported to have informed the federal government.

As a result, the PQA had now decided to adopt relatively stringent criterion for capacity allocation and issuance of related NOC. This would mean payment of $1m fee for issuance of NOC followed by signing of implementation agreement.

Engro Corporation that has recently been allowed 66 cents per million Brithish thermal unit (mmBtu) as terminal charges, however, assured the task force that it would make its own arrangement for additional dredging.

The company would be responsible for construction of LNG terminal at Port Qasim but the government has not been able to finalise a deal for supply of LNG due to repeated problems arising of non-compliance of transparency and procedural requirements leading to litigations.

Engro Corporation’s subsidiary Elengy Termimal Pakistan Limited had bid for the fast track LNG import facility advertised by the government of Pakistan through the Interstate Gas Company Limited (ISGS). The project is to lead to import of 400 million cubic feet per day of LNG. Engro already has a chemical handling terminal at Port Qasim.

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