Government of Pakistan awarded a contract to GDF Suez to supply 3.75 million tons per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for a period of 20 years. This is the country’s first gas import project and efforts are still being made to allow Shell to import additional 2.5 million tons during the same period.

The project envisages supply of up to 500 million cubic feet per day of gas. The price of LNG imported from GDF Suez will be $1.8 billon lower than the rates offered by Shell in the first six years, the import price will be around $9.3 per MMBtu said, G A Sabri, senior petroleum ministry official.

GDF Suez will start supplying the gas to Pakistan by Oct. 2011 according to the initial six-year contact. . The company may also supply 1.5 million tons of LNG annually for the following 14 years under the contract, G.A Sabri said.

Via Ibrahimsajidmalick.com

SNG is a technology which is based on a mixture of natural gas and air. It is cheaper and has been in use at Gwadar. Excerpts from the Business Recorder story:

Owais Mir, head of SNG providing company in country Dynamic Engineering and Automation said that installation cost of SNG plant is six times lesser than LNG plant whereas the cost of one MMBTU SNG is 25 – 30 percent lesser than LNG.

In Gwadar through SNG technology 60 MMBTU gas per hour is being produced and successfully transmitted to the consumers. Moreover textile and ceramic tile industry have already started having the benefit of SNG as alternative source of energy.

He informed that the developing countries like Argentina, Brazil and Chile etc are managing their natural gas shortage through SNG technology. Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has also invited bids for such system which will be a mile stone to fulfil the requirement of natural gas in the country