Musadik Malik, State Minister for Petroleum, has warned of power outages in July and a gas scarcity in the country's next winters.

KARACHI: Pakistan is facing a worsening of its electricity crisis after failing to reach an agreement on natural gas supplies for next month. Tenders for July were canceled due to high prices and insufficient participation since the country is already taking steps to address severe outages.

According to merchants with knowledge of the subject, state-owned Pakistan LNG Ltd. canceled a purchase tender for July supplies of liquefied natural gas after receiving an offer that would have been the most costly shipment ever supplied to the country.

Musadik Malik, State Minister for Petroleum, has warned of power outages in July and a gas scarcity in the country's next winters.

Pakistan has failed to finalize an LNG tender for July for the third time this month, and the country's failure to acquire fuel threatens to aggravate electricity shortages just as hotter weather increases air conditioning and power consumption.

"We're taking a different approach," said Zakaria Ali Shah, a spokesperson for Pakistan's energy ministry, in response to inquiries about the LNG bids. According to him, there is no present gasoline scarcity in Pakistan. In an emergency, the country can transfer resources to high-priority sectors such as power generators.

Pakistan's government is aiming to increase energy savings by reducing working hours for public officials and ordering retail malls and companies in major cities, including Karachi, to close early. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised on Thursday that more initiatives will be taken to eradicate blackouts.

LNG prices have risen as Europe increases imports of the super-cold fuel amid growing fears that Russia would curtail pipeline gas supplies. A breakdown at a key US export facility has resulted in more restrictions.

According to BloombergNEF statistics, Pakistan purchased about half of its LNG on the spot market last year, with the remainder purchased under long-term contracts.

The bidding, which concluded on Thursday, received an offer for only one of the four cargoes sought and was priced at over $40 per million British thermal units, about triple the cost Pakistan paid a year ago. Pakistan declined the high-priced offer.

Expensive gasoline imports are beginning to affect consumers as Pakistan continues to raise local prices in order to satisfy a major requirement for obtaining a vital bailout from the International Monetary Fund. To get through the next 12 months, the government will require at least $41 billion. Pakistan is not the only cash-strapped developing country battling to get LNG in a tight global market; Thailand recently reduced purchases owing to high pricing.

Musadik Malik, the head of the PML-N, blamed the incident on a private news channel.

the previous administration for not purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at a lower cost.

"Two years ago, LNG was accessible in the market for $4, but the previous administration squandered the chance by failing to reach a long-term arrangement, and today it's not even available at $40," he explained.

Malik went on to warn that the globe is suffering a gas scarcity as a result of the Ukraine-Russia conflict since European countries have not purchased even a single molecule of gas.