Control of OGRA: NA panel agitated by PM’s rejection

Body proposed to bring gas regulator under petroleum ministry’s control.

ISLAMABAD:

A parliamentary panel on Wednesday threatened to walk out of a meeting in protest against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s rejection of a summary recommending the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and Explosive Department to be brought under control of the petroleum ministry.

National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources that met on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Sardar Talib Nakai raised concerns over the rejection.

The committee decided to call on the prime minister to protest against non-implementation of their recommendation.

A heated exchange took place between the acting Chairman Ogra Sabir Hussain and members who termed the entity a white elephant and the most corrupt department. Hussain claimed that Ogra was doing work honestly and allegations of corruption were baseless.

Legislator Syed Haider Ali Shah said that the Supreme Court gave an order against Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq who made million of rupees due from corruption and also declared his degree to be fake.

The body was also given a briefing on the new proposed Petroleum Committee 2011. The panel directed the petroleum ministry to take measures to ensure implementation of the policy after it got approval from Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Petroleum Concessions Director General Sher Khan briefed the committee on new petroleum policy and said incentives were required to expedite exploration activities. He informed that the new policy eliminated zone system and offered a price of $6 per Million British Thermal Units (mmbtu) for new discoveries instead of previous prices of $4.38 to $5.03 mmbtu. He said shallow discovery will be offered price of $7 mmbtu, deep $8 mmbtu and ultra deep $9 mmbtu, while first three off-shore discoveries will get a bonus of $1 per mmbtu.

Panel member MNA Barjees Tahir grilled the petroleum ministry saying that there was no difference between 2009 and 2011 policy and emphasised on the need to chalk out a mechanism to make the policy more effective to achieve the results. He said that the government claims Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) is fully independent, but its determination to decrease petrol prices by Rs4 per litre influenced by the Ministry of Finance which allowed only a reduction of Rs1.50 per litre.

Parliamentarian Shahnaz Sheikh alleged that Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s spinning mill unit was getting uninterrupted gas supply. She said that the matter was raised with the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines officials but they said they could not take any action. Petroleum minister assured that he would inquire in the matter. The committee decided to call officials of Ministry of Finance to know petroleum levy mechanism at its next meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2011.