A private consortium of US companies backed by the Trump administration is seeking to invest up to $4.4 billion in an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Pakistan, covering imports, storage, regasification, transmission and sales to large consumers on a merchant basis.
The consortium comprises Global Vision Energy Partners and Khanjee Holdings, along with Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holding. According to sources, the sponsors have obtained site consent from the Port Qasim Authority, applied to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for a provisional licence and incorporated a special purpose vehicle for the project.
A two-phase plan
The first phase, costing $1.7 billion, would build an LNG terminal and four storage tanks at Port Qasim holding a combined 560,000 cubic metres, with annual throughput of about 35 billion cubic feet. The second phase would lay a 1,100km, 42-48-inch pipeline to carry around 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas a day upcountry. Proposed charges for the first decade are $4.93 per mmBtu for terminal and storage and $1.91 for transmission.
Pakistan currently has no LNG storage, leaving its supply entirely exposed to import schedules and global prices. The project is under consideration by the US Trade and Development Agency and may receive partial financing from the US Development Finance Corporation, though no binding equity commitments have been confirmed. The proposal follows the withdrawal of an earlier consortium of Lucky Group and QatarEnergy, which abandoned a similar plan citing policy changes and unresolved fiscal issues.