A group of U.S. companies backed by the Trump administration wants to invest up to $4.4 billion in a liquefied natural gas project in Pakistan.
The project would handle LNG imports, storage, re-gasification, gas transmission and sales to large consumers.
The move comes after Energas — a group that included the Lucky Group and QatarEnergy — dropped a similar plan. It cited major changes in Pakistan’s energy policy and unresolved policy and fiscal issues.
The U.S. consortium includes Global Vision Energy Partners and Khanjee Holdings, along with General Mediterranean Holding, a Luxembourg-based U.S. financial group, and other foreign co-investors.
The sponsors have secured consent from the Port Qasim Authority for the project site and applied to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority for a provisional license. A special purpose vehicle has been set up to hold the project’s assets and liabilities.
The project has been approved for consideration under the U.S. Trade and Development Agency’s project preparation program. It may also get partial financing from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, backed by U.S. Export-Import Bank guarantees.
Pakistan currently has no LNG storage facilities, so its re-gasified LNG supplies depend entirely on imports and global energy prices.
The project will be built in two phases:
Phase 1: An LNG terminal and storage facility with four tanks, handling about 35 billion cubic feet a year, at a cost of $1.7 billion.
Phase 2: A 1,100-kilometer pipeline to move gas upcountry, with capacity of about 1.2 billion cubic feet per day. This brings the total cost to $4.4 billion.
The government had earlier pursued a similar north-south pipeline project with Russia.
The project is designed as a merchant infrastructure platform — it will meet domestic re-gasification needs and also serve as an LNG storage and trading hub in South Asia for U.S. and Middle Eastern suppliers. It will not rely on a single government-backed offtake deal.
The consortium is looking for local investors to take up to 10% equity, with minimum investments starting at $50 million. It also hopes to attract strategic co-investors such as Grey Rock Investment Partners, KKR, Blackstone, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the Kuwait Investment Authority. No binding commitments have been confirmed yet.
Re-gasification tariffs for the domestic market will go to Ogra for approval. Other services — storage, tolling and transshipment — will be priced at market rates.
The sponsors see Port Qasim as strategically important because of its existing port infrastructure and marine access for LNG carriers. Its location outside the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy shipping chokepoint, is another advantage.
The project will have a 70:30 debt-to-equity ratio. Global Vision Energy Partners will hold 26%, General Mediterranean Holding 24%, and Khanjee Holdings and strategic co-investors 20% each. Local investors will hold the remaining 10% in Phase 1, which is estimated to cost $1.32 billion.
The final cost will be set after engineering, procurement and construction contracts are signed. The commercial model will combine long-term tolling and storage deals, transshipment arrangements and take-or-pay commitments, with the rest of the capacity reserved for merchant activities.
The proposed tolling tariff for the terminal and storage facility is $4.93 per million British thermal units. The transmission tariff is estimated at $1.91 per mmBtu for the first 10 years. Both rates are expected to fall to $2.20 and $0.92 per mmBtu, respectively, after that.
The terminal will have four tanks, each holding 140,000 cubic meters, for total storage of 560,000 cubic meters. With three turnover cycles a year, it is expected to handle about 35.6 billion cubic feet of LNG annually.
