Pakistan Relaunches LNG Tender for Winter Cargoes as Qatari Supply Stays Disrupted
State-owned Pakistan LNG Limited has reissued a tender for two winter LNG cargoes after rejecting an earlier round of bids as too expensive, as the country heads into the cold months with its usual Qatari supply still far from fully restored. The new tender, reported by Business Recorder and cited by Oilprice.com, seeks delivery on a delivered-ex-ship basis at Port Qasim, with one cargo due December 14-16 and a second due January 9-11, 2027.
A Tender Pakistan Had to Relaunch
Pakistan LNG’s first attempt at buying these two cargoes failed: two international suppliers quoted between $27 and $31 per million British thermal units, and Islamabad rejected both offers as too costly. The reissued tender is now back on the market, with the state buyer hoping for better terms the second time around.
The re-tender is part of a larger scramble. Oilprice.com reports that Pakistan will need to buy ten additional spot cargoes for delivery between November 2026 and February 2027, at roughly double the price it normally pays for term supply from Qatar, pushing the country’s winter LNG bill above $1 billion.
Why Qatari Supply Still Isn’t Back to Normal
Pakistan has historically covered most of its LNG needs with Qatari cargoes delivered under government-to-government deals signed in 2016 and 2021, normally running around nine shipments a month, according to Lucky Investments analyst Muhammad Saad Ali, cited by Arab News. That flow broke down in March, when QatarEnergy declared force majeure on its exports after strikes on its Ras Laffan terminal during the regional conflict — a disruption this site has tracked since the fall, when Doha extended the force majeure period into December.
Some Qatari cargoes have since reached Pakistan after Iran gave assurances that vessels could transit the Strait of Hormuz safely, but supply is still well short of normal. Arab News reported that an LNG carrier named Al Mayeda, carrying Qatari gas bound for Pakistan, was attacked near the strait — an incident that added to Islamabad’s winter supply concerns even as some shipments got through. Rystad Energy has estimated that the regional conflict added at least $39 billion to the world’s LNG import bill this year, and Pakistan’s scramble for spot cargoes is a direct piece of that wider cost.
The Price Gap Is the Real Problem
SSGC chairman Asif Inam told Arab News that spot LNG is running at roughly $33 to $34 per MMBtu, against the roughly $14 per MMBtu Pakistan pays under its long-term Qatari contracts — more than double. “If we are unable to get supplies from Qatar, then LNG is getting very expensive in the spot market,” Ali said. Inam added that replacing even a single missing Qatari tanker with spot cargoes would be costly but manageable for now, and said he hoped the conflict would end so Qatar’s exports could normalize.
The gap matters beyond Pakistan LNG’s balance sheet. Ali warned that higher import costs risk either feeding through to consumer gas prices or adding to the country’s long-standing circular debt problem if the government absorbs them instead. Industries such as textiles, chemicals and glass could face curtailment if supply tightens further, he said, and households may see below-normal gas pressure through the winter, as they have in past cold seasons.
A Supply Crunch With Regional Echoes
Pakistan is not alone in adjusting to a disrupted Qatari supply chain. Poland’s Orlen has leaned harder on US LNG after its own Qatari cargoes were snarled by the conflict, and buyers across Asia and Europe are competing for the same limited pool of spot cargoes ahead of winter, which is part of why Pakistan’s rejected bids came in so high. Qatar remains one of the world’s largest LNG suppliers, and its force majeure has rippled through import markets well beyond South Asia.
Pakistani officials have pointed to rising domestic gas production and newly discovered fields as a partial offset, but Ali cautioned that domestic output cannot fully replace the lost Qatari volumes this winter. Imported LNG feeds power plants, fertilizer production and city gas networks across Pakistan, which is why a disruption concentrated on one shipping route and one long-term supplier keeps showing up in sectors far removed from energy trading desks.
For now, the test is simpler and more immediate: whether the relaunched tender draws bids Pakistan can afford, and how many more Qatari cargoes make it safely through the Strait of Hormuz before the cold months end. Qatar remains among the handful of countries that dominate global LNG exports, which is part of why buyers like Pakistan have so few alternatives to turn to when one supplier’s flow is interrupted.
Sources
- Business Recorder, tender notice, cited by Tsvetana Paraskova, “Pakistan Scrambles for LNG as Winter Gas Crisis Deepens,” Oilprice.com, November 13, 2026 — tender volumes, delivery windows and winter cost estimate.
- “Pakistan seeks LNG cargoes as Qatar supply disruptions threaten winter shortages,” Arab News, November 5, 2026 — SSGC and analyst quotes, spot-versus-term pricing, Al Mayeda incident.
Illustrative image. Photo: VileGecko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
