A unit of LNG giant QatarEnergy and trader Vitol have submitted the lowest bids in a tender to supply Pakistan with two spot LNG cargoes in November.
Three companies took part in the tender, including QP Trading, Vitol Bahrain, and TotalEnergies Gas and Power, Pakistan LNG’s evaluation report dated November 5 shows.
QP Trading submitted the most competitive bid for the November 26-27 delivery. The firm offered a price of $30.6500/MMBtu.
On the other side, Vitol Bahrain submitted the lowest offer of $29.8966/MMBtu for the November 19-20 delivery.
Pakistan launched this emergency tender last week after term suppliers Gunvor and Eni canceled deliveries of two November LNG cargoes, local media reports said.
Prior to this tender, Pakistan LNG sought eight spot LNG cargoes over the December-January period. However, it received no offers for these cargoes.
This comes at a time when spot LNG prices broke several records.
S&P Global Platts said last month that the JKM for November had reached $56.326/MMBtu, the highest level for the LNG benchmark for Asian spot LNG since Platts launched it in early 2009.
In the meantime, the prices dropped to about $30/MMBtu and this tender shows they are still trading in this range.
If accepted, these prices would probably be the highest Pakistan has ever paid for an LNG shipment.
Pakistan has been steadily increasing its LNG imports over the years and the country plans to build several more terminals to cope with gas shortages for power generation.
Port Qasim currently hosts two LNG import facilities both utilizing floating storage and regasification units.
