Prime Minister YOusaf Raza Gilani on Thursday directed the ministry of petroleum to take immediate steps to resolve gas supply issues of both domestic and industrial sectors. He gave these directions while chairing a meeting on LNG and gas imports.
Secretary petroleum briefed the meeting that 100 mmcfd gas from Hyderabad gas field would be available within a month. ‘This gas would be put into the national system to ease pressure of gas outages on domestic and industrial consumers,’ the secretary said. He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would get 15 mmcfd gas from Kohat gas field immediately, which would be put into the national system.
He said negotiations with CNG association were underway to rationalise the supply of gas to CNG stations. He also said priority would be given to domestic consumers in these negotiations and terms would be negotiated with the industrial sector to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas to households.
Secretary said the government had taken emergency measures to address gas shortage in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, and was able to resolve it to the extent of 80 per cent. He informed steering committee of ECC had approved financial consultancy for Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, which was a major step forward as far as the project was concerned. He apprised the meeting that 750 mmcfd more gas would be flowing into the system by November 2014, which would be sufficient to meet 40 per cent of country’s gas deficiency.
The meeting was attended by minister for finance, minister for petroleum, secretaries of finance, water and power, petroleum, and cabinet; chairman NEPRA, FBR, OGRA, and Port Qasim authority and MD private power and
infrastructure board.
