OGRA slashes RLNG prices by 13% for October
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has issued a notification of a 13% reduction in Regassified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) price for gas distribution companies in October 2022.
Under the second LNG contract with Qatar, the cost of basket RLNG is also lower due to four cargoes instead of the two, which are available to Pakistan at 10.2 percent of Brent.
During this period, Qatar received 4 LNG cargoes instead of the 6 at a rate of 13.37% of Brent under the first contract.
As per the notification issued by OGRA, the average basket price for supply of LNG at the import stage for Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for 8 cargoes is $11.56 per million British thermal units (MMBTU).
Imported RLNG for the other 2 gas companies, SSGCL and SNGPL, thus fell by $2.2 to $2.3 per mmbtu, or about 13%, respectively.
The sale price for SSGCL was notified at $15.19 per mmbtu and $14.78 per mmbtu for SNGPL respectively.
It stood at $16 per mmbtu, down 15-16pc at the transmission stage in July, compared with $19.07 per unit in June and $18.8 per unit in July.
RLNG price at distribution stage for SSGCL was notified by 13.1% to $15.18 per mmbtu from $17.476 in October, compared to $16.98 for SNGPL. It had decreased by 12.92% to 14.78 dollars.
Thus, the average RLNG customer price at the distribution stage in October for both companies is about $2.2 per mmbtu lower.
It may be noted that the basket price of LNG in May reached a record high of $22 to $24 per mmbtu due to which the new coalition government introduced spot prices in its first month in power to meet the energy shortage.
Since then, repeated attempts to import more gas through spot tenders have been futile due to tight supply conditions following the Russia-Ukraine war and record prices on the international market.
Thus, in October and September, except for one of the two suppliers, all nine cargoes from larger diameters were available to Pakistan under long-term contracts.
