KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — QatarEnergy has told Pakistani buyers that it will not deliver liquefied natural gas until the end of the year, extending a force majeure that has cut supplies from the Gulf since the war with Iran began, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The notices, which push the suspension to the end of December from an earlier deadline in early December, mean Pakistan is likely to go into the peak of winter gas demand without Qatari cargoes. Pakistan buys most of its imported LNG from Qatar under long-term contracts, and uses it for power generation, industry and household supply.
Italy’s Edison, one of QatarEnergy’s biggest customers in Europe, said in a notice on the platform of the Italian energy market operator GME that three more LNG cargoes meant for it would be affected. QatarEnergy has cancelled deliveries to Edison since April because of disruption caused by the Iran war, which began in late February.
Prices climb
The loss of Qatari supply, low gas storage in Europe and cooler weather have pushed the benchmark Dutch gas price above €95 per megawatt hour this week, close to its highest since December 2022. Edison’s contract with QatarEnergy, in force since 2009 and running for 25 years, covers 6.4 billion cubic metres of gas a year, about a tenth of Italy’s annual use.
Gulf energy sites remain under threat. On Tuesday Yemen’s Houthis claimed a missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom’s largest, while QatarEnergy is offering naphtha for loading inside the Strait of Hormuz through tenders, traders said.
