ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday apologised for load shedding during night hours, attributing the situation to non-availability of contracted LNG from Qatar, which has rendered power plants with a combined capacity of around 5,000 MW unable to operate.
In a joint video message, Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik explained the reasons behind the shortage of RLNG and the resultant load management across the country, including areas with high distribution losses.
“There has been no shortage in supply during the day or night so far. However, due to increased demand during night hours, when the requirement cannot be met without RLNG-fired power plants, people are passing through a difficult time, for which I apologise,” Leghari said.
READ MORE: Minister speaks of supply constraints: Load-shedding to stay till LNG flows resume
The power minister said the government could purchase LNG from the spot market to operate the affected power plants, but the prevailing international prices were too high due to the Iran-US conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We can buy LNG from the spot market to run power plants, but when its cost is passed on to consumers after two months, their electricity bills will increase by Rs5-6 per unit,” he said.
“Though people are facing difficulties for a few days, we are trying to save them from additional bills of thousands of rupees,” Leghari added.
According to the minister, diesel and coal-fired power plants were being operated at full capacity, in addition to hydropower generation, which is linked to water requirements for agriculture.
He said maximum available generation from the southern part of the country was being transmitted to the north within the capacity limits of the transmission network.
Leghari said there was no load shedding in HESCO due to supply constraints, while the duration of load shedding had been increased in areas where distribution losses were high.
“I again apologise to the people for load shedding due to the non-availability of RLNG and assure them that as soon as the gas issue is sorted out, there will be no outages,” he said.
The minister reiterated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had given clear instructions that electricity prices should not be increased.
He said the government was making all-out efforts to eliminate load shedding, increase power generation and resolve the gas supply issue at the earliest.
“Ending load shedding is our top priority,” Leghari said, adding that all available generation resources were being utilised to meet electricity demand.
Meanwhile, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said energy markets were facing severe difficulties because of the prevailing regional situation.
He said the price of a single LNG cargo, which normally cost around USD 30-35 million, had increased substantially in the spot market to around USD 75 million.
The minister said the government also had to take into account the impact of expensive energy imports on the country’s current account.
“Fuel import bill was around USD 1.3 billion during March – July 2026,” Ali Pervaiz Malik said.
He said the government had provided a subsidy of Rs130 billion on petroleum products to provide relief to consumers and cushion the impact of volatility in international energy markets.
The Petroleum Minister said the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Division had made every possible effort to ensure uninterrupted energy supplies despite the difficult regional situation.
He said that even amid the prevailing war-like situation, the government had managed to keep the energy supply chain operational and maintain continuity of supplies.
Ali Pervaiz Malik said the government was closely monitoring developments in regional and international energy markets and taking all necessary measures to ensure adequate supplies of petroleum products, LNG and other energy resources.
The minister said efforts were also under way for early restoration of gas supplies from Qatar, after which the government expected the situation to improve and night-time load management to end.
