ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbassi has said that the government will decide the price of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) within two days.
Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, chaired by Chaudhary Bilal Ahmed Virk, the minister said that the government has decided to bargain 14.5 per cent of Brent crude price, which is the best price ever as the previous government offered 14.9 per cent.
Abbasi said that a team of experts from Qatar has already arrived in Pakistan and is negotiating the rates along with the terms and conditions at which Pakistan is set to import the super-chilled fuel.
He said that due to certain clauses in the pricing mechanism, India was currently buying LNG from Qatar at around $13 per tonne, whereas the cargo that arrived in Pakistan on April 27 was priced at $8 per tonne. “All this misinformation regarding LNG was being floated by the oil importers as Pakistan imports furnace oil and diesel worth $2.5 billion annually,” he said.
