After a successful test burn of Pakistan’s first Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) programme, the oil importers lobby has become active against the important project in the country. As Pakistan is said to be the only country which depends on oil to meet nearly 60 per cent of its energy demand, the strong lobby of oil importers have started their move against the new project which might provide the required gas in the next few years, sources told Profit. The already scheduled meeting of ministries of petroleum, finance and other concerned authorises to be held on January 16 has also been postponed for unknown reasons. The meeting was scheduled to be held to discuss and approve financial requirements of the UCG programme at That, Sindh. A meeting of the same kind, sources claimed, had earlier been postponed by the ministry of finance.
The powerful lobby besides creating hindrance in the process of releasing financial package and others has also started propagating negative and false aspects of the project aiming to make it ultimately a fails programme, they alleged.
“It is a matter of interest that the debate against the UCG project seems to have picked up momentum ever since the breakthrough at the project and the successful production of coal gas has begun,” they added.
According to the sources the renowned scientists of the country, who have taken initiative of the project, are now seen visiting different offices in Islamabad for the release of the required funds of the project. While on the other hand the oil lobby is still trying to keep the burden of heavy import bill of oil on the shoulders of the people of the country.
Sindh government which claims to have explored Thar reserves is also yet to release the decided Rs200 million to the project while the federal government is also reluctant to give the Rs5 billon required for purchasing power engines and other equipments for UCG.
Interestingly, despite the major breakthrough in the project, none of the political figures at both Sindh and federal level bother to actually visit the site. “Though it could be counted as a major success story of the present government, the oil lobby and interest group in bureaucracy were involved in keeping the government under dark,” sources alleged.
Referring to some negative propaganda about the successful project, experts in the coal gasification field said that Thar coal project is not a push button project.
Oil importers lobby active against coal gasification project
