ISLAMABAD: The government is working on a plan to change the management of the Oil and Gas Development Company to improve its performance and increase oil and gas production.
Stating this at a news conference on Thursday, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar said that the problem of gas shortage currently affecting many aspects of public life was because of haphazard expansion of the consumer base and failure of taking up projects required for additional energy supply over the past few years.
He said the government was trying to improve energy supplies with enhanced domestic production and imports.
He agreed that compressors at OGDC’s largest gas field – Qadirpur – should have been made functional by now to boost or at least maintain production but there was negligence and lack of efforts since early 2009.
He parried a questions about steps his ministry planned to take to curb violation of rules in appointment of consultants and contractors for installation of compressors, but said he was monitoring the progress on a periodic basis to ensure that gas gathering facilities at Qadirpur were in place before the June deadline so that the field maintained its production.
He said the fastest option to meet the energy shortfall was to import liquefied natural gas for which a decision was expected by the end of this month.
The project would take two years to complete and start delivering LNG before winter next year. Likewise, the plan to import of gas from Iran would also take four years to materialise, he said.
The minister said the gap between supply and demand had increased so much that the cabinet had to approve a shared load management with all stakeholders and disconnection of supply to the CNG sector for two days.
He said a notification reportedly issued by the SNGPL to stop supplies to the CNG sector in addition to the cabinet plan was not mandated by the government and stern action would be taken for violation of the cabinet decision.
He said there was also no question of going beyond the cabinet decision about gas load management.
The minister said the government was speeding up gas exploration and development and about 250 mmcfd of gas was being added from Gurgury field in Karak.
Pakistan Petroleum Limited, he said, was aggressively entering into the field of exploration and the government expected the OGDC to do the same.
Apart from these short- and medium-term options, he said, the government would have to focus on long-term improvement in energy supplies through development of indigenous resources, particularly coal.
Talking about energy sector’s circular debt, Mr Qamar said the present government had not signed the faulty sales purchase agreement with the Karachi Electric Supply Company, but it worked with the company to ensure that its management improved.
However, he said, the government would have to take radical steps if its performance did not improve.
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