On Sunday, The government has ordered the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited [SSGCL] and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited [SNGPL] to hold weekly meetings with the developers of two upcoming liquefied natural gas [LNG] terminals to remove impediments, besides immediate handover of the possession of the land for tie-in facilities near Pakistan Steel Mills.
According to reports the federal cabinet had on August 2, 2019, decided that provisional letters of intent (LOI) be issued to all the five interested investors who have completed Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) on the sites assigned to them. Therefore, the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) issued LOI to all five terminal operators. Subsequently, two-terminal operators Energas and Tabeer Energy accepted the terms and conditions and deposited US$2 million as part of the concession fee out of a total US$10 million concession each and the remaining $8 million to be deposited upon signing of implementation agreement.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs in collaboration with Petroleum Division facilitated the new LNG terminal developers in securing NOCs from various ministries and departments for expeditious completion of new LNG terminals, the report stated.
In its last week meeting, the inter-ministerial committee on the issue of allocation of tie-in point at Port Qasim had ordered the SSGC to hand over the possession of the land to both the LNG terminal developers within a week like other two terminals on the same terms and conditions, the report said. The committee had also decided that SSGC “should not wait for the signing of the lease agreement with Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM)” for handing over tie-in space to terminal developers and in the meantime “also sign a lease agreement of land with PSM and make the payment accordingly”.
