Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the government has accelerated the efforts for domestic exploration of oil and gas to meet energy crisis in the country.
He was winding up discussion on a resolution moved by Naeema Kishwar Khan regarding gas load-shedding in the country. The minister said that there was 33 per cent increase in the exploration and the success ratio was 54 percent. He said the process would be further accelerated. He said 90 new discoveries have been made in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said import of LNG was a big achievement of this government to meet the ever-increasing energy demand. He said there would be 33 per cent increase in the LNG import by July next year. He said with the import of LNG, industry and fertilizer plants were getting supply of gas. He said CNG was available in Punjab which was suspended previously. He said the efforts were underway to lift ban on new gas connections imposed in 2011.
He said there was 40 per cent increase in the domestic consumers of gas in winter. He said the steps were being taken to fulfill the requirement. He said the government has made efforts to move forward on Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline Project but progress on the project was not possible till the complete lifting of international sanctions on Iran.
He said the work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India project was started in December last year and hoped that it would be completed in four years. After completion, Pakistan will be able to get gas through this project.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch informed the House that the government was making efforts to provide ample relief to the temporarily dislocated persons.
He was responding to another calling attention moved by Muhammad Jamaluddin and others regarding non-provision of facilities like tents to the poor dislocated persons and refugees of South Waziristan despite the availability of funds and clear instructions of the federal government.
The minister said that 6000 winterized tents have been provided to these people. He said the 30,000 more such tents were needed and we were taking the matter with the Ministry of Finance.