First-ever production bonus for Balochistan

Balochistan government will receive half a million dollars from Mari Gas Company very soon

ISLAMABAD: Thanks to the Supreme Court, Balochistan will for the first time receive $500,000 as a ‘production bonus’ from a gas producing company in the next few days.

“The Balochistan government will receive half a million dollars from the [Quetta-based] Mari Gas Company very soon,” Director Petroleum Concessions (DGPC) for the Ministry of Petroleum Nasreen Javed told the top court on Wednesday.

Other provincial governments are already receiving such ‘production bonuses’ from oil exploration and production (E&P) companies for social welfare, according to Deputy Director of the Energy Department Abdul Qudoos Khan. Balochistan, however, had been deprived of the amount in the past, he told The Express Tribune.

The Justice Jawwad S Khawaja-led three-judge bench, which heard the suo motu case on Wednesday, expressed satisfaction at the development and observed that despite Balochistan’s high share of natural resources, only a small amount was spent on social welfare in the province.

The suo motu notice was taken up on a plea by Tando Adam Tehsil Bar Association President Abdul Hakeem Khoso who pointed out that oil and gas companies were polluting the environment of Sanghar district without doing much to provide infrastructure, jobs and gas to region’s residents.

Meanwhile, the bench directed the Punjab Information Technology Board to consult relevant authorities from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and develop a management information system (MIS) to monitor spending by E&P companies on social and infrastructure development.



The directive was issued after the K-P Oil and Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) told the court that it had developed an MIS which displayed “all yearly and accumulative details of various funds received and spent on various projects in K-P on account of production bonuses, social welfare obligations and royalties.”

The court, in its December 27, 2013 judgment, had directed the DGPC and provincial government to ensure that social welfare obligations of E&P companies were monitored.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2014.