ISLAMABAD – The government has decided to develop an indigenous LNGshipping facility, by building the operational capacity of PakistanNational Shipping Corporation (PNSC) in the next few years.
PNSC, the national flag carrier, will acquire the required vessels toachieve self-sufficiency in this trade in accordance with internationalstandards and commercial requirements.
The import of LNG has been on the rise since the past couple of years tomeet the local demand, particularly in the power sector. Its import surgedto $3.33 billion in FY19 and $2.45 billion in FY18, however, the supplieswere carried out by the importers against high premium rates.
The development of an indigenous shipping facility will help the governmentreduce a significant amount of money on a long-term basis and generatebusiness for its state-owned company.
Ministry of Maritime Affairs, in this regard, asked PNSC to make ajoint-venture setup in the coming months with the private shipping service.It also directed PNSC to develop its internal expertise and capacity of LNGbusiness.
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The ministry issued directives to PNSC to carry out all renewed and new G2Gbilateral imports agreement on FOB basis through its chartered facility.Also, the payment of this service will be done in Pakistani Rupees insteadof Dollars.
Recently, PNSC acquired three vessels to expand local operations mainly toimport crude oil and petroleum products. The national flag carrier is alsogiven the mandate to perform shipments of 40 percent oil products for theG2G agreements on C&F basis.
