LAHORE – PTI government will not cancel the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)deal with Qatar, sources have revealed.
PTI government will not either reduce its prices without permission ofQatar as the investigations reveal that strict conditions were agreed byPakistan from Qatar in the multi billions dollars deal.
The initial investigation report of LNG import deal with Qatar has beencompleted.
The report revealed that the previous government had done two deals understrict conditions with the Qatar government. Under the conditions, the newgovernment cannot reduce the prices of LNG.
The first agreement was inked between the PSO and Qatar Gas OperatingCompany Limited in March 2015, while the second agreement was signedbetween the PSO and Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited. The PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf government was not allowed to cancel or reduce the priceswithout the consent of Qatri companies.
Violating the PPRA rules, former PSO managing director Shahid Islam hadsigned a long-term first contract with Qatar on March 2015 on thedirections of former petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Under theact, the PML-N government purchased four LNG cargoes worth Rs10 billion atan expensive rate and violated the law.
These agreement have bounded Pakistan to purchase LNG worth $2 billionevery year in next ten years. The report also said that Pakistan has to paya heavy penalty if it purchases less than the fixed quantity of LNG.
It was also reported that Pakistan can never demand the reduction of LNGprices nor cancel this agreement until 2026 while Qatar can furtherincrease the prices of LNG after 10 years.
The agreement with Qatar was singed for 15 years which will end On December31, 2031. Pakistan is bound to keep the conditions of contract as secret.Pakistan also needed a permission of Qatar if they want to shareinformation about the contract to the public level.