The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has raised regasified liquefied natural gas prices by up to 34.6 per cent as disruption to Qatari supply continues (Geo News).
Customers of Sui Southern Gas Company in the south took the harder hit, with the price rising $6.4512 per million British thermal units to $25.087 — a 34.6 per cent increase. Sui Northern Gas Pipelines consumers in the north will pay $25.8388 per MMBtu, up $6.316 or 32.35 per cent.
RLNG prices have surged more than 144 per cent since the war in the Middle East began on February 28.
The mechanism behind the increase is the substitution. State-run Pakistan LNG Limited bought all five of July’s cargoes on the international spot market, where prices are higher and more volatile than under long-term contract. Pakistan State Oil, which imports Qatari gas under two long-term crude-linked contracts, brought in nothing — and that absence explains the squeeze.
The disruption dates to March 2, when drone strikes hit Qatari energy infrastructure. QatarEnergy, the world’s largest LNG exporter, declared force majeure and halted shipments to customers across Europe and Asia, Pakistan among them.
The pass-through reaches industry and power generation rather than domestic consumers directly, but it feeds into the cost of electricity and of anything manufactured with gas — at a point when the daily fuel pricing mechanism is already transmitting Gulf risk to the pump within 24 hours.
The regulator’s notification did not indicate when Qatari supply is expected to normalise.
