Citizens may get gas for 6 hours only from January 2024 in Pakistan

During Shahbaz Sharif’s government, a deal was made with an Azerbaijani firm SOCAR. The firm was to send one LNG cargo per month. However, their cargo may not come and the country might have a severe gas crisis starting January 2024. Experts suggest that due to this gas shortage, citizens may only get gas for 6 hours a day starting next year.

As winter’s approach in Pakistan, the use of LNG for domestic purposes will increase as citizens will start using heaters and stoves much more. Due to this high-demand of LNG, a deal was brokered with an Azerbaijani firm SOCAR for one LNG Cargo per month. However, sources suggest that their cargo may not arrive before January of 2024.

Before the deal was made with the firm, Pakistan’s gas shortages were already increasing as it was estimated that even if the gas was provided to citizens for 8 hours a day for cooking, in November alone the shortages would amount to 360 million cubic feet per day. This number increased to 430 million cubic feet per day for December and in January 2024 this number is expected to be above 500 million cubic feet per day.

Now, the non-availability of the SOCAR cargo is going to create a massive shortage of gas supply and starting January Pakistan could be in a gas crisis. Officials suggested that the vibes coming from SOCAR suggest that they might not be able to offer us the cargo before January 2024.

The agreement was set in January 2023 and was also to be extended for another year. However, due to the recent demand of LNG in the International market because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, SOCAR is reluctant to send the cargo for January and the next cargo may arrive after 45 days.