Zariat Mushfique of DOT
[2] As the country’s coronavirus lockdown eats into domestic natural gas consumption Pakistan has cut its April LNG cargo deliveries, and Bangladesh could be the next country in South Asia to push back on LNG shipments after it introduced a lockdown last week, reports SGglobal. [3] Raising concerns about surplus cargoes being dumped on the spot market, nationwide closures now pose major risks to South Asia’s LNG imports after a 21-day shutdown prompted Indian gas companies and ports to make force majeure declarations last week. [4] Jeff Moore, manager for Asian LNG at Platts Analytics, said, “Our forecast for growth in Pakistan and Bangladesh, assuming no COVID-19 outbreak impact, was an average of 8 million cu m/d from April through June over the same period last year,”
[5] He added, “This is about 17% growth year over year. I think it’s likely that the majority of this growth will be wiped out and we could see some year-over-year declines for the next few months across South Asia.”