ISLAMABAD – Warning that the gas crisis could “sink the country” if it continued, the newly-appointed Adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain said on Monday that immediate remedial measures were required to end the crisis and the decision to dismiss the heads of state-owned oil and gas entities was made because of their failure to deliver and perform as a team. Hussain told a press conference quite candidly that the gas crisis could not be overcome in the short term, but could be stopped from worsening.
Pakistan was currently facing a gas shortage of 700mmcfd, even though it had discovered gas reserves of 500mmcfd which could not yet be injected because of litigation and pricing issues, he said. The heads of state-owned oil and gas entities, he said, had been removed on the people’s demand because they had failed to perform as a team. “Their number twos will take over within the next three days,” he said. Their failure to amicably resolve issues that had withheld transmission of the discovered gas reserves was the major problem in overcoming the energy crisis, he added.
From 2011 onwards, the Petroleum Ministry’s own studies projected 2bcfd of gas shortage, which was expected to reach 4bcfd in the next few years if no new discoveries were made, he said. Pakistan meets 85 percent of its energy requirements through imported petroleum products. Hussain said the government would now focus on supply-side management instead of demand-side management as it had done previously. A 25-year vision for hydrocarbon development was drafted to develop domestic energy resources quickly, he added.
The tight gas policy was ready, he said, and the low BTU gas policy was expected to be completed soon. The gas utility companies, he said, had been told to set up their own LPG companies for extraction and distribution to counter black-marketing by private companies.