The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that the country was facing two billion cubic feet gas shortage.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal Khan told the House during question hour that there was no plan to decrease the import of crude oil because the country was already running short of gas. He said private sector refineries imported the crude oil and the government could not slash down their imports.
He informed the House that over 1.4 million domestic applications of new gas connections were pending with Sui Northern and 33,000 with the Sui Southern Gas Company. He said the policy of the government was to provide connections to those who have applied first.
Jam Kamal Khan said that the SNGPL had requested the OGRA for revision/ increase of annual targets from 250‚000 to 500‚000 for timely provision of gas connections. He said the company had informed that a proposal for processing domestic gas connection against urgent fee 25‚000 to the extent of 10 percent of total annual allocation had been forwarded to OGRA for its approval so that domestic gas connections may be provided expeditiously within a time period of three months.
He said in 2012-13 the import of crude oil equals to 7286 million tons worth 5849 million dollars while the quantity of crude oil imported in 2011-12 was 6104 million tons worth 5058 million US dollars.
