ENGRO Ceo clarifies Dry Docking controversy

July 2, 2021

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In a televised Interview with Geo TV, president of Engro Corporation Ghias Khan clarified his company’s stance on the Dry Docking Controversy.

The Government has blamed Engro Corp for the prevailing gas crisis in the country. Ghias Khan said that if work had been expedited, dry docking of the Engro terminal could have taken place during the Eid holidays. There has been a lot of correspondence with Sui Southern Gas Company, we have 70 letters in this regard.

Engro President Ghias Khan says that we have replaced the old 630 MMCFD FSRU with a larger FSRU with 780 MMCFD, but Sui Southern Gas Company told us that We guarantee that the old FSRU will be brought back. We want the big ship to stay in Pakistan so that the additional demand for gas can be met in winter.

He further said that in October 2019, the SSGC was told that the dry docking of the terminal would take place in March 2020. Due to Corona, the class society had shifted the dry docking from March 2020 to September 2020. This was also reported to the SSGC after which they updated their annual delivery plan. The Class Society also deferred dry docking in September 2020 in view of the situation in Corona.

The class society said that there may be no drydocking next year so we will conduct an on-site inspection in April 2021. In March 2021, the class society conducted an on-site inspection by which time the corona vaccine had arrived. It was decided to conduct dry docking in June-2021, while Engro informed the SSGC on March 30th, three months well ahead of the time.

Engro CEO questioned then how can the government tell us that you should have told the dry docking dates by June 30 2020.

Ghias Khan said that had both the institutions were working fast, dry docking could have taken place even during the Eid holidays. Engro has about 70 liters of correspondence with the SSGC. If dry docking did not happen and the certification expired, we would have a big problem.

Currently, there is an energy shortage in the Country where Gas Supply to Power Plant specifically and to some industries is being decreased due to low supply situation in the country.

Government has previously blamed Engro Corp for delaying the Dry Docking of the LNG Terminals and without informing the Government agencies.