The 150,900-cbm FSRU Exquisite, jointly owned by US FSRU player Excelerate Energy and Qatari LNG shipping giant Nakilat, has completed its 600th ship-to-ship transfer in Pakistan’s Port Qasim.
Excelerate said in social media post on Monday that the FSRU has completed the milestone STS operation last month.
The US firm did not provide further details.
The 2009-built unit works in Port Qasim at the country’s first LNG import terminal.
It started serving Engro Elengy Terminal, a joint venture of Engro and Vopak, back in 2015.
In October 2021, Exquisite completed its 400th ship-to-ship transfer in Port Qasim.
The FSRU Exquisite currently fulfills as much as 15 percent of Pakistan’s domestic daily natural gas requirements, according to Excelerate. It has a peak regasification rate of 690 million cubic feet per day.
Nakilat took over the management of this vessel in 2020, the first-ever FSRU to join its in-house shipping management.
Two FSRUs
Port Qasim currently hosts two LNG import facilities both utilizing FSRUs.
Besides the FSRU Exquisite, the second floating LNG import facility uses the FSRU BW Integrity.
Pakistan gets most of its supplies under long-term contracts from Qatar, but also from the spot marker when the prices are affordable for the country to fuel its power plants.
The country also has a 15-year deal with Italy’s Eni for 0.75 mtpa per year and this contract started in 2017.
In July last year, Pakistan also signed a one-year deal to buy one LNG cargo per month from Azerbaijan’s Socar.
According to GIIGNL data, Pakistan increased its imports by 3.1 percent last year as the affordability of spot LNG in 2023 revived LNG demand in price sensitive countries.
Pakistan imported 7.1 million tons of LNG, with majority of the supplies coming from Qatar, the data shows.
State-owned Pakistan LNG has not issued spot cargo tenders this year, according to its website.
In March, Geneva-based energy trader Gunvor has resolved a dispute with Pakistan LNG over issues related to contracted LNG supplies.
