ISLAMABAD: A Chinese firm will be awarded the contract to build $2.5 billion Gwadar liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline in November, Interstate Gas Systems (ISGS), who opened the technical bid for the construction of projects told media personnel on Wednesday.

Mubeen Saulat, ISGS managing director, said that the Chinese state firm China Petroleum Pipelines Bureau (CPP) has submitted technical and commercial bids in accordance with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. While ISGS, after scrutinising the documents opened the technical bid adding that the commercial bid will be opened in November.

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CPP will construct the terminal with a capacity to handle 500 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) of LNG and a floating storage gasification unit. It will also build the 700 kilometre long Gwadar to Nawabshah pipeline.

"The dual projects will be completed at the cost of about $2.5 billion, 85 per cent of the investment will be done by the Chinese company while government of Pakistan will provide 15pc of equity," said Saulat.

The ISGS official also added that the CPP will acquire a loan from Exim Bank which Pakistan will repay in the coming years through the revenue earned from the project.

The pipeline and terminal will be secured by Pakistani security agencies while the Chinese camp will be safeguarded by a Chinese security company.

The CPEC, with a planned portfolio of projects totalling around $46 billion, will link Gwadar, Khuzdar and other areas on way to Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar along its central route.

The eastern route will connect Gwadar to Ratodero, Sukkur, and Karachi and upward to cities in Punjab, and from there to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Khunjerab Pass.

Linking Gwadar to the rest of Pakistan and the western Chinese city of Kashgar, 3,000 kilometres away, will involve major infrastructure work in Balochistan.

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