CorrectionThe 17 July Daily Briefing described a ~20% fall in European gas that did not happen — August TTF settled at €54.79/MWh on 16 July, essentially flat. During our platform rebuild, a retired machine running an outdated data feed briefly came back online and republished week-old settlements as live prices. The briefing has been withdrawn, and live prices are now verified against exchange settlement history before publication.
Pakistan Returns to Spot LNG Market as Hormuz Halt Cuts Qatari Cargoes
Islamabad is chasing July and August spot cargoes after a fresh Strait of Hormuz shutdown disrupted term deliveries from Qatar, its main supplier.
Pakistan is moving to buy additional spot LNG cargoes for July and August delivery after a fresh halt to Strait of Hormuz traffic disrupted shipments from its term supplier, Qatar, oilprice.com reported on Friday (2026-07-17). The government was said to be close to finalising the purchases.6
For a country that imports around 90% of its oil and petroleum products from the region and depends heavily on imported LNG for power generation, a break in Qatari deliveries forces it straight into a spot market trading near multi-year highs.3 Spot JKM was quoted at $19.92 in the latest read, above the levels at which Pakistani buyers have historically been willing to commit.6
This is the second time in two months Islamabad has been pushed into the same corner. Government-owned Pakistan LNG published a bid request on Thursday (2026-05-21) for 0.24bcm, three cargoes for delivery between 27 April and 14 May, to cover lost Qatari volumes, Montel reported.1
Traders were unimpressed at the time. The three-cargo bid was unlikely to tighten global markets meaningfully, they told Montel, given its modest size.1 The current move is larger in intent but rests on the same problem: Qatar cannot deliver reliably while Hormuz is shut.6
The disruption traces to the Iran conflict. Damage to Qatar's export infrastructure and the Hormuz blockade cut supply from late March, pushing spot Asian LNG above $25 at the peak, according to trade reporting from mid-May (2026-05-19).5,4
Wood Mackenzie cut its estimate for Asian LNG imports to about five million tonnes from 12.4 million, assuming a two-month supply disruption, and analyst Lucas Schmitt said the conflict will significantly reduce Asian LNG demand growth in 2026.2 Global Energy Monitor estimated around $107bn of planned infrastructure investment could be at risk.2
Not everyone reads spot prices as one-way. One directional signal on JKM leans bearish on a supply basis, a reminder that a Qatari restart or a reopening of Hormuz would unwind much of the premium quickly, given how much of the current level reflects war risk rather than a lasting shortage.6
For Pakistan the near-term issue is price, not availability. It can find cargoes, but only at levels that strain its import bill.3 The next signals are whether Islamabad clears its July and August tender and at what premium to JKM, and whether Qatari term flows resume once Hormuz traffic normalises.6 Until then, each interruption sends the same buyer back to the same expensive market.