Pakistan consoles itself with coal as gas supply imbalance comes to a head

This winter’s gas supply crisis that has gripped Pakistan, which has left businesses and homes short of energy in the middle of winter and shut down compressed natural gas re-fuelling stations for vehicles, had been heralded for months. However, it is a short-term phenomenon, caused partly by January’s record-breaking LNG price spike that made other markets more attractive for spot cargoes.

More fundamental is a chronic gas supply-demand imbalance that has constrained Pakistan’s economic growth for over a decade and forced it to turn to coal. LNG has been slow in coming to the rescue, as have proposed import pipelines from Iran and Turkmenistan.