ISLAMABAD – Environment Secretary Khawaja Muhammad Naeem has said that Pakistan’s energy mix is highly dependent on oil and gas. It has to spend around $10-12 billion a year on the import of crude oil and deficit petroleum products. He stated this while addressing in a workshop on the promotion of energy conservation and safety standards in different CNG applications.
He said that Pakistan was working on policies to substitute liquid hydrocarbon fuels with natural gas in a bid a cut down its import bill and to reduce the impact on the environment. Argentinean Ambassador in Islamabad Rodolfo Martin Saravia, GNC Galileo SA Argentina Director Asia Pacific Juan Ojanguren, ENERCON Managing Director Faridullah Khan and other experts also attended the workshop.
Environment secretary also said that the government’s petroleum policy encourages use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as transport fuel to replace petrol as well as diesel oil, to provide natural gas to thermal power plants using furnace oil, and to increase local production and import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to replace kerosene and fuel wood. He expressed concern over energy losses and stressed the need for adopting appropriate measures to improve the overall situation.
Naeem said that CNG is a highly environment friendly motor fuel for improving ambient air quality. It is a lead-free fuel with negligible sulphur and particulate emissions. Carbon monoxide emissions are only one tenth of those in the case of petrol. It also produces much lower carbon dioxide emissions a compared to petrol and diesel oil. It thus helps in keeping our environment clean pollution free and also in mitigating global warming effect caused due to greenhouse gas emissions to carbon dioxide.
Chemically it normally consists, propane and butanes of over 90 percent methane with smaller amounts of ethane, carbon dioxide and other trace gases. The high methane content gives natural gas a high octane rating (120-130) and clear-burning characteristics, allowing high engine efficiency and low emissions. The Argentinean ambassador addressing those gathered, underlined the need for adopting new technologies in energy sector, especially in CNG filling stations, to avoid emission of hazardous gases and accidents.
ENERCON managing director has said that Pakistan has been lucky to have a number of natural gas discoveries in the past three years with an output potential of more than one billion cubic feet of gas per day within the next four to five years. The government is encouraging fast-track development of these discoveries through different incentives to bring the additional gas in the national pipeline network. Khan said that federal government plans to formulate strict and stringent standards for related emissions to keep our cities and roads clean for the sake of ourselves and our future generations.
With increasing population of CNG stations in the country, we need to have safety parameters in different applications. He further said that Safety Aspects are also very important. It was clarified that the directorate general of gas in the ministry of petroleum and natural resources and the chief inspector of explosives are enforcing standards and safety issues related to CNG conversion, dispensing and use. It was pointed out on the occasion that there are 3,600 CNG filling stations which need to be upgraded.
