Fuel-ing: Pakistan Petroleum stocks sufficient, says DG

Says government is intensifying oil and gas exploration activities.

ISLAMABAD:

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources is pursuing a strategy to maintain stocks of petroleum products aimed at meeting the country’s day-to-day needs.

“Sufficient quantity of petrol and diesel is kept in stock to meet needs of consumers for at least for eight to 14 days, and the existing reserve is quite satisfactory,” said the ministry’s director general of oil Abdul Jabbar Memon.

He said that presently, 110,000 tonnes of petrol was available in stock, while more shipments containing around 150,000 tonnes of petrol were arriving at different ports in the next few days.

He said the government is making efforts to intensify oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas of the country for achieving self-sufficiency in the sector.

Replying to a question, he said as many as six oil refineries were operating in the country and they had full capacity to refine the product as per the country’s needs.

“We are self-sufficient in refining crude oil, but a lot of work has to be done in the exploration sector to achieve autarky,” he said. Responding to another question, Memon said that the country’s success rate in oil and gas exploration was “very high” as compared to discoveries made at the international level.

“After almost every three to four drillings, there is a find, while at international level discovery comes after eight to 10 attempts,” he added. “The government is pursuing a practical and aggressive petroleum strategy to achieve self-sufficiency in oil and gas sector, which would help bring the import bill to the lowest level.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2015.

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