Economic leaders say the people who make key decisions must attend the meeting.
BY Mahnoor | 11-07-2026
ISLAMABAD: The country’s money managers were upset because top oil and gas officials did not come to a recent meeting. They would not agree on the price for local gas given to LNG power plants during the US-Iran war.
A member of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) told The Express Tribune newspaper that the Petroleum Division wanted the top economic group to set a high price for local gas sent to LNG power plants when gas from Qatar stopped due to the Middle East war.
The local gas was given to LNG plants to fix big power cuts in April and May 2026 all over the country. The government stopped sending home gas to CNG stations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and sent it to LNG power plants instead.
Sources said that when the group that makes economic choices talked about this, they were told that the petroleum secretary, who started the request for gas prices, was not there. The special petroleum secretary also did not come to the meeting.
It was noted that the opinions and comments from the relevant ministry were missing, which were needed to make a decision on the plan. Considering this, the ECC postponed the plan to set a higher price for natural gas given to LNG power plants.
ECC members also told ministries and departments that the main officials who sent the proposals must come to meetings to push their cases.
It was noted that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) set the normal price for re-gasified LNG (RLNG) at $12.4913 (Rs3,498) per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for March 2026. This price went up to $15.6237 (Rs4,375) per mmBtu for May 2026.
The Power Division said that applying this standard RLNG price to local gas supplied from April to June 2026 would force power plants to ask for higher fuel cost adjustments of Rs0.5 to Re1 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This would then raise electricity bills for users.
To stop raising prices for customers, a meeting led by the prime minister decided that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) should charge less, at Rs2,000 per mmBtu, for local gas given to those plants, instead of the normal RLNG price. Later, in May 2026, the National Coordination and Management Council looked at the plan.
The Petroleum Division warned that charging a lower price instead of the full RLNG price would stop the sector from getting more money and would add to the gas sector’s debt cycle, which was Rs1.8 trillion (as of December 2025). It also noted that a higher price would help SNGPL recover money it is owed for RLNG sales.
After a crisis started in the Gulf in late February 2026, QatarEnergy said it could not deliver LNG cargoes due to unforeseen events. To deal with the shortage of LNG, the National Coordination and Management Council decided to give local gas to LNG power plants from April to June 2026, if it was available.
Following this decision, SNGPL moved 48 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas from CNG stations in K-P to meet the power sector’s needs. Ogra checked the estimated revenue needs and set SNGPL’s average price at Rs1,853 per mmBtu for the fiscal year 2026, with a final payment at the end of the financial year.
The Petroleum Division told the ECC that the government changed the Ogra Ordinance 2002 by adding a new part. This new part says the regulator will set monthly prices for RLNG sales, following policy rules made from time to time.
RLNG sales are kept separate so they don’t affect local gas prices or regular customers, unless RLNG is clearly given to home users. In that case, the cost must be recovered through price changes twice a year. So, all RLNG buyers (including power plants, factories, and homes) are billed each month based on prices set by Ogra according to national policy.
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