ISLAMABAD - The government Thursday reduced the average sale price of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) by up to 1.15 percent for the month of September. Since LNG is pegged to the oil price and there is tremendous decline in international crude prices, the RLNG prices for local consumers were also reduced by up to $0.1568 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). According to the notification issued by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, the regulator has reduced the provisional price of RLNG for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) consumers by $0.1505/mmBtu, or 1.07 percent. For the consumers of SSGC, it was slashed by $0.1568/mmBtu or 1.15 percent compared to August 2024. Notably, for August, its prices were increased by 3.2 percent. “The decrease in RLNG prices is mainly due to decrease in DES price.” as per the OGRA notification. Following this decline, the weighted average sale price for SNGPL consumers has been set at $13.856/mmBtu, while SSGC consumers will be charged $13.4205 per MMBTU. In August 2024, the prices were $14 per mmBtu for SNGPL and $13.577 per mmBtu for SSGC. The newly announced prices were 7.94 percent costlier for SNGPL and 0.425 percent costlier for SSGC when compared with the prices in the same month of last year. Last year in September 2023, the RLNG price was $12.8366/mmBtu for SNGPL and $13.3636/mmBtu for SSGC consumers. These new weighted average sale prices have been computed based on the 10 cargoes imported for month by PSO while Pakistan LNG Ltd (PLL) did not import.
Since September 2023, RLNG prices have fluctuated significantly. After a 3.08 percent increase in September, there were further hikes of 3.87 percent in October, 1.2 percent in November, and 10.1 percent in December. Prices decreased by 7.8 percent in January 2024 and 9 percent in February, followed by increases of 2.57 percent in March, 1.06 percent in April, and 6.5 percent in May. The month of June also saw an increase in RLNG prices. In July 2024, OGRA had reduced RLNG prices by up to 8.5 percent for both Sui Companies. In previous month of August, the government had increased the RLNG price by 3.2 percent.