South Korea's Posco set to supply LNG to Pakistan for first time: Report

By Jessica Jaganathan and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

ISLAMABAD/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - South Korea's POSCO International Corp is set to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan LNG for the first time, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Posco offered the lowest bid of 7.9673% of Brent crude oil prices for the supply of an LNG cargo into Pakistan delivered over Sept. 12 to 13, according to a notice posted on Pakistan LNG's website.

SOCAR Trading placed the lowest offer of 6.9511% of Brent crude oil prices for another LNG cargo to be delivered over Sept. 25-26, according to the notice.

It is unusual for Posco to participate in Pakistan LNG's import tender and could be the South Korean company trying to expand its third-party trading activities, according to an industry source.

Four other companies technically qualified for the import tender by Pakistan LNG and placed offers for the two cargoes ranging from 8.1788% to 10.7143% of Brent crude oil prices. They are Gunvor Singapore, PetroChina International Singapore, Trafigura and Vitol Bahrain.

The prices are expressed as a "slope" of crude oil prices, a percentage of the Brent crude price, and are typically a pointer for the opaque spot LNG market.

Separately, Pakistan LNG has bought an additional prompt cargo that it had sought for mid-August delivery at 9.3421% of the average price of Brent crude oil prices over three months, the company said on its Twitter account.

The company had invited bids from limited suppliers for the prompt requirement due to an urgent requirement from the fertilizer sector, Reuters reported earlier.

 

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam in Islamabad; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)