Qatari LNG shipment arrives in Pakistan via Strait of Hormuz after earlier disruptions

KARACHI: A cargo ship carrying around 82,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar arrived in Pakistan through the near-closed Strait of Hormuz, reported Anadolu news agency on Thursday. Al Marrouna, carrying LNG from Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal, transited through the strait on Monday and docked at the Engro LNG Terminal at Port Qasim on Thursday morning, said Asad Altaf, a spokesman for the port. It marked the first Qatari LNG shipment for Pakistan through the strait since July. According to Altaf, the last Qatar-origin LNG cargo arrived on July 11, the news agency reported. “The scheduled cargoes from Qatar Energy had been disrupted due to the regional situation,” he added. First shipment via Hormuz since July 11 will boost supplies to power sector The fresh shipment that Pakistan procured under a government-to-government arrangement with Qatar is likely to boost the LNG supplies and provide temporary relief to the power sector. It has also eased concerns over a prolonged disruption of Qatari LNG supplies through the strait. Islamabad and Doha have been playing an active role in ongoing mediation between the US and Iran to bring the two sides back to the table to end their months-long war. Pakistan is currently facing power outages of between six and 12 hours in several parts of the country amid soaring fuel prices due to fresh hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz. Currently, Islamabad is following a daily fuel price mechanism in response to the volatile crude market, triggering protests by political parties. Stakeholders genuinely fear that an escalating war in the Gulf could severely disrupt supplies of both crude oil and LNG. Pakistan has recently been buying crude oil from the US in small quantities, but the cost is higher because of long-distance shipping. High fuel prices have increased production costs, as goods transporters announced a 10 per cent rise in freight charges amid a spike in inflation. Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2026

Pakistan's Energy Crisis Set To Ease As Qatari LNG Breaks Through Hormuz Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, Pakistan is about to get some energy relief with tankers carrying Qatari LNG set to arrive in the country this month. The first cargo is seen arriving as early as Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing ship-tracking data. Pakistan has been struggling to keep the lights on after Qatar declared force majeure on its exports following Iranian strikes that caused damage to its Ras Laffan LNG hub. Since then, Pakistan has been forced to turn to spot LNG markets and pay hefty premiums for the occasional shipment. Qatar was the biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas to the South Asian nation, under long-term contracts. The country has issued several prompt liquefied gas delivery tenders over the past three months, consistently paying $20 per million British thermal units and more-a tender earlier this month ended without an order, after Pakistan's state gas company only received one offer, whose price was $27 per million British thermal units. This is three times higher than pre-war LNG prices that Pakistan was paying. "The international LNG price is around $23.18 per MMBtu, whereas the bid received was $26.969 per MMBtu. The price was considered too high, so a fresh tender has been issued," a senior Pakistan LNG Limited executive said, as quoted by Pakistani media earlier this month. Following the failure of that tender, Pakistan LNG issued a new one. The Qatari cargoes would go some way towards alleviating the energy crisis in Pakistan, where power generation costs have soared due to the gas crunch and rolling blackouts have become a fixture of life, sometimes lasting for 24 hours in some parts of the country. As of July, these were 38% higher than a year earlier and since then have likely one even higher as LNG on the spot market has also trended higher while QatarEnergy announced an extension of its force majeure. Tyler Durden Thu, 09/10/2026 - 20:55