Gas supply: Petroleum minister stresses on increased production

Says it has remained stagnant for 15 years at 4 bcf per day

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said the energy shortage cannot be overcome until gas supply was increased in the country.

Gas production has not increased during the last 15 years, staying stagnant at 4 billion per cubic feet (bcfd) per day against demand of 8 bcfd per day, he said while talking to a news channel.

He said the previous governments over the span of 20 years had focused on three projects, including import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline (IP) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India (TAPI) pipeline but failed to increase the availability of gas.

According to Abbasi, five times successive governments have tried to implement the LNG project.  “However, the plan is now materialising, with LNG being provided to fertiliser factories, power sector, compressed natural gas (CNG) stations and some other industries.”

Replying to a question about provision of LNG to domestic consumers, the minister said the government had initiated work to lay a pipeline for the purpose.

In the first phase, Rs150 billion would be spent in 2016 and Rs250 billion in the second phase. Regarding the IP gas pipeline project, he said the past and present governments had made several efforts to complete it, but international sanctions on Iran were the main hurdle.

“TAPI project has been lingering on for the last 24 years but now hope has arisen with the recent announcement of Turkmenistan government for investment,” said Abbasi.

He said it was a misperception that gas was not being provided to domestic consumers despite its availability. “It was being provided to CNG and industrial sectors in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa under the constitution.”

The issue, he said, should be discussed in the council of common interests (CCI) for developing national consensus over the distribution of gas. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2015.

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