Disruptions in LNG supply to hit industry hard

According to Business Recorder, Mian Zahid Hussain, president of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), has voiced deep concern over Qatar halting LNG shipments to Pakistan until November 5, citing a force majeure provision. He described force majeure as a legal clause freeing parties from contractual duties when natural disasters, accidents or unavoidable emergencies occur. He pointed out that Qatar accounts for 20 percent of worldwide LNG output and linked the disruption to the US-Iran war, which he said will severely hit industrial gas supplies.

He also noted that unconstrained annual demand for gas and imported LNG has ranged from 1.27 to 1.46 trillion cubic feet (TcF) across the last five years. Rationing and pipeline limits, however, have held actual consumption to only 1.1 to 1.2 TcF a year. During the period from March to September 2026, Pakistan obtained only 17 LNG cargoes, and the final shipment from Qatar came in on September 22.

He said the expected LNG cuts would force factories to scale back output, and that cancelled export orders would deal a heavy blow to exporters. Buying spot cargoes, a temporary financial burden, is far preferable to an industrial shutdown, he argued. He also urged priority allocation of home-produced gas and imported supplies for factories and exporters. He welcomed the government's macroeconomic stabilisation efforts, but added that running factories at full capacity would be the true test of progress.