The government is likely to start the process of importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) afresh by scrapping the entire process commenced by the Pakistan People's Party-led (PPP) coalition government. The sources said that newly appointed Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif discussed the issue of LNG import on Saturday.

"Bids have already been received for one tender by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC ) but this process was suspended after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice and the new tender has been scrapped," the sources said. All the parties ie USAID consultant, Engro's Elengy Terminal Pakistan Limited (ETPL) Turkish-owned Global Energy Infrastructure (GEI) and Pakistan GasPort Limited (PGPL) are out of the picture now.

In March 2013, the Supreme Court issued a stay order in the case on the award of LNG import contract and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to conduct a probe into the matter. The Supreme Court issued the stay order against all proceedings at all fora for the award of the LNG contract till a final judgement in the case.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard the case initiated on the note of the Supreme Court Registrar. The chief justice said that the court's main concern was transparency in the award of the contract. He said that NAB had cleared SSGC of allegations of corruption in the award of multi-billion-dollar LNG import project.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2013