Senate body seeks setting up LPG plants in remote areas

The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum on Thursday underlined the need for setting up Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) air-mix plants in remote areas, especially where the state-owned gas companies’ infrastructure does not exist.

The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Abdul Qadir, took an update on gas supply schemes for various localities of Balochistan and expressed concern over the non-gasification of its 16 districts.

The panel stressed to make all-out efforts for provision of gas to these areas, besides setting LPG plants in all such localities, adding that a commercial model must be formulated and submitted to it at the earliest.

The committee also received briefing on the matters related to gas supply in Kohat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and directed the quarters concerned to ensure provision of commodity to the residents and other remote areas of the province in a judicious manner.

Members of the panel asserted that it was extremely unfair that the local community of an area that supplied gas to the rest of Pakistan remained deprived of it.

Read: Industries losing Rs45b daily due to gas shortage

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited officials assured the committee of maximum efforts to provide gas to the local populace. The body was informed that funds amounting to Rs441 million had been allocated to rectify gas pressure in this territory.

The committee also reviewed progress on the establishment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal and the LNG virtual pipeline at Gwadar Port.

It recommended ensuring the facilitation of the private companies involved in the LNG business and directed the grant of “no-objection certificates” to them at the earliest after fulfilling the required formalities so that the business efforts remained unhampered.  It also suggested forming a task force for the purpose. 

Among others, the meeting was attended by Senators Saadia Abbasi, Fida Muhammad, Prince Ahmed Omer Ahmedzai, Afnanullah Khan, Shamim Afridi, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah, Muhammad Qasim and senior officers from the Petroleum Division, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and other departments concerned.