Concerns raised by State Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Sheikh Waqas in the last federal cabinet meeting regarding the licence issued by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to a foreign firm, Global Energy Infrastructure (GEI), to build a terminal at Port Qasim for the import of Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) have failed to move the Petroleum Ministry, a source in the federal cabinet told Pakistan Today on Sunday.
“Waqas objected that the licence had been awarded to a Turkish firm whose office was registered in British Virgin Islands but its mailing address was of Switzerland. Waqas said Virgin Islands were infamous for unfair business activities worldwide,” the source said. The source said further that Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain defended OGRA’s move to award the licence to the Turkish firm, saying that these reports were merely unfounded criticism.
The source said Waqas had also accused the authorities of violating the set rules and regulations as the licence was awarded in haste and just a few weeks before passage of the new LNG Policy 2011. “The minister of state said the case could turn into another scam for the government and the Petroleum Ministry similar to the LNG import contract to a French company in 2010 in which the Supreme Court (SC) had taken suo motu action. The minister said the government should be careful as it was already facing corruption charges,” the source said.
The source said Hussain had denied any corruption in awarding the licence, saying that there was nothing to worry about as the licence had been awarded in the larger interest of the nation. “Waqas said rules and regulations should be preferred over the commonly used phrase ‘larger interests of the country’. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani asked Dr Asim Hussain to strongly rebut such reports and present facts so that the government could avert any maligning campaign,” said the source.
The source said further that reports suggested that OGRA had issued the licence to construct LNG receiving terminal to the Turkish firm without getting approval on the acceptable Environmental Safety Impact Assessment (ESIA) report from the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) as the ESIA report had been rejected by SEPA in a public hearing.
