Pakistan's government has apologised to electricity consumers for rolling blackouts during night-time peak hours, blaming a failure of regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG — natural gas converted from its liquefied form for use in power plants) cargoes to arrive on schedule. The Power Division said the delays created a 3,600MW shortfall, forcing load-shedding of between 1.5 and three hours overnight, with the shortfall worsened by a 195MW drop in output from Mangla Dam. The disruption stems from the US-Iran war that began in February, which has hampered RLNG shipments from Qatar through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up generation costs by a record 242 per cent in July and adding pressure to consumer electricity bills.