Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Petroleum Nadeem Babar said.

Pakistan would save an amount of around $ 3 billion in import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) under a 10-year agreement signed with Qatar at 10.2 percent of the Brent, which would be effective from January 2022.

'Today we have signed a very important agreement with Qatar. Our earlier agreement [signed by the PML-N government] with Qatar is of 13.37% of the Brent, under which an average five cargoes arrive every month. But, we [the PTI government] has inked the deal at 10.2% of the Brent,' he said while sharing the details with media of the agreement, which was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan here at the PM House.

This contract, he said, was almost 31 percent low as compared to the previous agreement signed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. 'It is a 10-year agreement and the price can be renegotiated after a period of four years.'

The SAPM said the existing agreement was of 15 years, under which the price was fixed for a period of 10 years.

Under the new agreement, he said, Pakistan would save around $ 317 million annually and $3 billion collectively during a period of 10 years.

Nadeem Babar said there were a number of...