Karachi (Platts)--7Feb2012/416 am EST/916 GMT

Qatar and Pakistan Monday signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of around 3.5 million mt/year of LNG to Pakistan, an official at Pakistan's ministry of petroleum and natural gas said Tuesday.

The MOU was one of several agreements signed during Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's recent three-day visit to Doha.

The LNG agreement was signed by Pakistan's petroleum minister Asim Hussain and Qatar's minister for energy Mohammed al Sada.

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A Qatari delegation headed by Sada is expected to visit Pakistan by the end of this month to finalize the plan of bringing LNG into Pakistan and the price structure, the official said.

Pakistan had earlier expressed interest in importing LNG equivalent to 500,000 Mcf/d of gas from Qatar as it strives to alleviate the country's deepening energy crisis.

Pakistan is already in a crisis with a gas deficit of around 1 Bcf/d and this situation is expected to worsen in the coming years. According to a recent central bank report, Pakistan's gas deficit could hit 3 Bcf/d by 2015-16 if the supply situation is not rectified soon.

The government last year issued licenses to three companies -- Pakistan Gas Port, Turkey-based Global Energy Holding and Pakistan's Engro Corporation -- to set up three LNG terminals with a combined regasification capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d.

The terminals are expected to be set up by the third quarter of 2012.

The government is planning to import LNG through these terminals and will pay a service charge to the terminal operators, a ministry official had earlier said.

--Haris Zamir, newsdesk@platts.com

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