Investment worth Rs111bn in power transmission system on the cards: Hammad Azhar

• "A massive investment [...] will be made during the next 3 years into power transmission system via NTDC," says Hammad Azhar.
• Minister addsinvestment will increase the capability of the national grid system.
• On Thursday, Azhar announced that the government has also secured LNG cargoes under a long-term deal.

Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar on Friday announced that a "massive investment" worth Rs111 billion in the power transmission system will be made during the next three years.

"A massive investment of Rs111 [billion] will be made during next three years into the power transmission system via NTDC," Azhar wrote on Twitter.

The minister added that this investment will "increase the capability of the national grid system to transmit 28,750 MW [and] 31,500 MW in the summer of 2023 [and 2024]."

Recalling the time when the PTI government came into power, Azhar said that in 2018, "we started off with just 20,811 MW."

Pakistan secures LNG cargoes to meet winter demand

According to a report in The News, the government has secured cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to meet energy demands for consumers, as costs surge.

Azhar announced the development on Thursday, saying that the government has secured LNG cargoes under a long-term deal.

"Some of the import shipments are from the new Qatar agreement at 10.2% of Brent," the minister said.

However, the minister did not confirm how many cargoes the government has secured for the November-January period.

The minister was upbeat about meeting the seasonal peak demand through a combination of measures being taken.

Consumers are bracing themselves for a severe LNG crisis during the winter season. For one, sourcing LNG has become a problem for countries. Another problem is that the price of gas has surged a great deal over the past couple of months.

It is pertinent to mention here that a natural gas crisis would be catastrophic in the harsh winter in the absence of spot purchases, which are hard to find these days amid the commodity's rare demand across the world.

The government is trying to employ a proactive and innovative approach to sustain LNG supplies while extending outreach on a war-footing basis through trade diplomacy and consultation with stakeholders.