Chief Minister Shah demands compensation for Sindh’s natural gas

Says under Article 158, the province with the source of natural gas has first right of utilisation

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Friday that Sindh should be compensated for the natural gas it provides to the country's fertiliser and power sectors at the cost of its own consumers in the province.

While presiding over a meeting to discuss the proposed amendments in OGRA Ordinance 2002, the CM said that the entire country benefits from the natural gas produced in Sindh, therefore the province should be compensated for its resource.

He said that under Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the province with the source of natural gas has first right of utilisation of its indigenous resource. "But, on the contrary, natural gas produced in Sindh is supplied to other provinces and requirements of Sindh are not being met," he said.



He said that had the natural gas been supplied to industrial, commercial and domestic consumers in Sindh, the province would have greatly benefitted from it. "Thus, Sindh should be compensated for the natural gas not provided to its consumers of different sectors," he demanded.

Shah directed Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh to prepare a case in consultation with experts and present it at the next meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI). He also said that three months had passed since the last CCI meeting and therefore he had decided to write a letter to the federal government for convening the meeting.

The Sindh government has also been demanding that the federal government give due representation to provincial governments in national institutions like Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The federal government has allowed Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) to inject Re-Gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) volumes for consumption by domestic and commercial consumers, provided that OGRA allows volumetric adjustments and financial impact on cost neutral basis in line with the decision of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on May 11, 2018.

The ECC further directed Cabinet Division to initiate necessary amendments in OGRA Ordinance 2002 so that the RLNG supply chain could be brought within its ambit in consultation with Petroleum Division and OGRA.

The Sindh government has proposed an amendment in Section 3(3), "The authority shall consist of a chairman to be appointed by the federal government and four members, one from each province, to be appointed by the federal government in consultation with the concerned provincial government".



The Sindh government has also proposed an amendment in Section 3(13) which reads as, "There shall be a vice-chairman of the Authority, appointed from amongst the members for a period of one year, by rotation, in the following order." The order is defined thus, the member representing the province of Balochistan followed by the member representing the province of Sindh, then the member representing the province of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and finally, the member representing the province of Punjab.

On the matter of 'Powers of the Federal Government to issue policy guidelines,' the Sindh government has proposed that the federal government can issue policy guidelines to the authority, but with prior approval of CCI.

Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Energy Secretary Musaddiq Ahmed, Finance Secretary Najam Shah, Thar Coal Energy Board Managing Director Tariq Ali Shah and other officers attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2019.