North-South gas pipeline to complete per schedule

Ministry says Pakistan not officially conveyed of any sanctions on Russian company

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, on Friday, categorically confirmed the initiation and in-time completion of North-South gas pipeline project as per schedule.

“Construction of North-South gas pipeline project will hopefully begin and conclude as per the given schedule agreed upon by the governments of Pakistan and Russia,” official sources in the Ministry said.

Commenting on some reports over the imposition of sanctions on a Russian company contracted to lay the pipeline, they said that Pakistan had nothing to do with it. “If any Russian company has been blacklisted under any international sanction, it (Russia) will assign the task to someone else.”

However, they said, Pakistan had not been officially conveyed about any sanctions imposed on the company concerned with laying the pipeline.

Under the project, a 1,100-kilometre pipeline from Karachi to Lahore with Russian investment worth $2 billion would be built.

“The project is of great significance to Pakistan as it would help supply the additional volume of imported gas from the country’s South to the rest of the areas,” said the sources, adding that due to the efforts of the present government Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal was constructed in Karachi in a record time.

They further said that around 12.4bcm (billion cubic meters) of gas would be transported from Karachi to Lahore per annum via a 42 inch diameter pipeline, and the project’s first phase is likely to be completed by December 2017.

The pipeline would connect LNG terminals located in Karachi with those in Lahore.

The sources said Pakistan was passing through a severe energy crisis and the project would prove to be a milestone in overcoming it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.

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