Search for new gas reserves continues: NA informed

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The National Assembly (NA) was informed on Monday that steps are being taken to explore new gas reservoirs to meet the growing energy demands.

During question hour, Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal told the House that the natural gas reserves in the country were 24.54 trillion cubic feet on December 31, 2013.

He said the current per day gas production is 4,075 million cubic feet, which cannot cater to the existing demand of around 6,000 million cubic feet per day.

He said the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing technical assistance to exploit shale gas reserves. The project was launched in January, 2014 and will be completed by the end of this year.

Answering a question, he said there are over 186,000 million tons of coal reserves in Pakistan.

He said that large coal deposits of Thar are expected to provide energy security to the country for a long time.

“The Sindh government has granted leases for three blocks of Thar coal field to the private sector through international competitive bidding. It is also sponsoring a pilot project of underground coal gasification to support power generation to one of the Thar blocks,” said Kamal.

In response to a question, Chaudhry Jaffer Iqbal told the House that Torkham-Karachi-Torkham and Chaman-Karachi-Chaman have been opened for NATO supplies and that both the routes have been operational with effect from February 28, 2014.

He said sufficient revenue is being generated and collected by Pakistan in the shape of duties and charges.

While replying to a question, Kamal said LNG import agreements have not been finalised so far. He said the government is considering import of LNG on government to government basis, through open bidding and on-spot purchase basis with the objective of getting LNG at the lowest possible price.

State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed told the House that the government is paying special attention to the construction of motorways.

He said National Highway Authority (NHA) has signed a concession agreement with Frontier Works Organization for “Overlay and Modernization of M-2”. It will cost Rs 36.825 billion on built, operate and transfer basis. The project will be completed in three years.

Aftab said Hassanabdal-Mansehra Expressway project is to be executed in two phases with financial assistance from Asian Development Bank. He said the bank has agreed to provide $ 315 million. The minister said the bank had approved $200 million for this year and $115 million would be provided next year.