Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar has said the ten year LNG contract signed with Qatar is thirty one percent cheaper compared to the previous agreements.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, he said it is the lowest publicly disclosed LNG contract in terms of price in the world.

The Special Assistant said this deal will help the country save three hundred and sixteen million rupees annually. It will make a difference of three billion dollars for ten years.

He said the previous agreement with Qatar was for fifteen years under which the price was fixed for ten years. He said the new agreement however envisages price reopening after four years.

The Special Assistant said under the previous agreement, the letter of credit worth 170 million dollars was given to Qatar but under the new arrangement eighty four million rupees will be given to the fraternal country .

The Special Assistant said under the new agreement, the country will receive two LNG ships on average per month and in a period of three years, the number of ships will increase to four.

He said the new agrement will be effective from January next year. However, there is a provision that the country can get the LNG by the end of this year.