‘Gas outages to decline by end of next year’

Pakistan to add 1bcf of gas, increase oil production: Hussain.

KARACHI:

“Gas outages to decline significantly by the end of the next year, as Pakistan will add one billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in its system,” said Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain on Saturday.

Speaking to the businessmen of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) he said that the country seeks to increase its oil production to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the present 60,000 (bpd) as per the new petroleum policy released earlier in the week.

He said that every sector seeks relief measures from the government which is impossible simultaneously.

Pointing to the comparison that a leading businessman made in his earlier presentation, Hussain absolutely refused to accept that Bangladesh’s cost of production is much lower than Pakistan’s, despite cheaper gas there.

Hussain said that the comparison of gas prices between Bangladesh and Pakistan in not fair by any means.

“One should not compare Pakistan’s gas prices with Bangladesh.  Instead, relationahsip can be developed between the gas prices of Pakistan with nations such as India and Sri Lanka, who import expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG),” he said.

However, at the end of his speech, Hussain assured the businessmen that he will negotiate with the government on the gas infrastructure development cess. But, he clearly said that the cess has been framed in an act and can be only amende by the Parliament.

Earlier, KCCI former president Zubair Motiwala showed a gas bill of a Bangladeshi textile firm in his presentation and argued that owing to low gas tariffs in Bangladesh the cost of production there is much lower than Pakistan.

Bangladesh’s gas tariff is just 6.45 cents per cubic meter while it is 18.23 cents in Pakistan, he said.

The speakers demanded that the government should eliminate the gas cess to help the export-based industries – a demand that Hussain declined immediately.

“The income from the gas cess will not be added to the federal treasury. It will be collected separately for the infrastructure development of gas that Pakistan wants to import from different countries,” argued Hussain.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2012.