ISLAMABAD – Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that the newpetroleum policy will be announced in the last week of the current monthafter completing necessary consultations with the provinces.
Winding up the debate on oil and gas price hike in the Senate, he said theincumbent government would soon present ten new blocks for exploration tonational and international exploration companies through open bidding.During last decade, no government concentrated on exploring oil and gasdespite immense potential.
The government, he said, has decided to give adequate representation toprovinces in Boards of Directors of 15 companies working under Ministry ofPetroleum as previous government had neglected provinces. He lamented thatthe stone lying ceremony of Diamer-Bhasha dam had been conducted thrice inthe last 14 years by three successive governments. During the last fiveyears, the money allocated for construction of Diamer Bhasha was utilizedin constructing underpasses, he said.
The Minister said Neelum Jhelum hydro power generation project wascompleted by spending Rs 506 billion despite hading initial cost of only Rs84 billion. The profit making Pakistan Steel Mills had endured whoopinglosses of Rs 470 billion thanks to policies of PML-N government, heexpressed.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan said the initial cost of Islamabad Airport was Rs 38billion, but it was completed by spending over 1 trillion rupees. He toldthe Upper House that the profit making Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Limited(SSGPL) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) endured Rs 158million losses for the first time in history during PML-N’s rule. Thegovernment, he said has decreased sales tax ratio on LPG from 17 percent to10 percent. Country’s petroleum prices are lowest in the region.
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The Federal Investigation Agency and National Accountability Bureau arecurrently examining the LNG deal with the help of experts, he added.Refuting the Opposition’s claim that the government has burdened the poorby hiking gas prices, he said that gas prices had been increased by 10 to15pc for the majority of consumers using 50 to 200 cubic metres of gas permonth.
The increase has been made to meet the deficit facing gas supply companiessuch as Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company, he added.
He said there was no power, energy, water crisis in the country during1970s. Power generation agreements were inked with Independent PowerProducers (IPPs) in haphazard manner and on higher prices as comparing tosuch agreements inked by other countries. The issue of constructing newdams was politicized by vested interests, he told.
