Eni unable to supply February LNG cargo to Pakistan

Market: Natural gas
26/01/23

Italy's Eni will not deliver an LNG cargo to Pakistan next month under a long-term contract between the firm and state-owned buyer Pakistan LNG because of a "force majeure event", Eni has told Argus.

Eni did not provide further details on the force majeure event. Eni holds a 15-year supply deal with Pakistan LNG for 780,000 t/yr.

The Italian firm holds long-term offtake from Nigeria's Bonny Island LNG liquefaction complex, as well as Egypt's Damietta facility, Qatar's Ras Laffan and Indonesia's Bontang export terminal.

Pakistan has been receiving most of its LNG supplies from Qatar in recent months, taking 6.4mn t of LNG — nearly 90pc of its entire supply — from the country in 2022, data from oil analytics firm Vortexa show. The country also took 250,000t from Nigeria last year and one cargo from Egypt. Supplies so far this month have largely come from Qatar, but Pakistan also took a rare cargo from Indonesia — the first since January 2020.

Eni planned to use its additional Indonesian production to supply Pakistan under a 15-year contract signed in 2017, but has received only three deliveries since the contract began. Eni instead was using Qatari and Nigerian offtake to supply Pakistan, Eni's then LNG and power marketing director, Massimo Mantovani, told Argus in 2018.

LNG exports from Bonny Island have held much lower in recent months compared with a year earlier, with terminal operator Nigeria LNG confirming to Argus on 13 January that it had not lifted the force majeure for Bonny that was initially declared in mid-October following continued disruptions to upstream feedgas supply to the liquefaction plant.

Nigerian LNG exports this month are set to fall from a year earlier, with the facility loading about 790,000t on 1-26 January, compared with 1.5mn t in January last year, Vortexa data show. Qatar's Ras Laffan loadings also have held lower since the start of this year, with the terminal having loaded 5.7mn t so far this month — a figure set to drop below the 7.2mn t recorded across January last year.

In contrast, supplies from Egypt's Damietta terminal have held brisk in recent months, with the terminal having loaded 326,000t so far this month, already up from about 200,000t a year earlier.

By Ellie Holbrook

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