ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy and Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said Pakistan is aggressively exploring oil and gas sources both offshore and otherwise.
He said there are encouraging prospects of the current offshore drilling by Exon Mobil, NNIO, GDCL and PPL joint venture and Pakistan is expecting good news. Quoting a US study, he said nearly 95 TCF gas and 15 billion barrels of oil could be procured from the country’s offshore sources.
Ghulam Sarwar said Pakistan like other developing countries also faces energy shortfall and is dependent on importing huge amounts of oil which is a major source of trade deficit. “We require a cheaper energy source to meet the energy requirements growing at 8 pc rate per annum. Pakistan needs to be self-sufficient in refined oil products,” he said.
Ghulam Sarwar said our oil sector lacks deep sector refineries while the five existing refineries are only hydro skimming catering to 120m tonnes petroleum products annually which is far deficient to meet 250m tonnes of annual requirement. He said the prospective refineries from KSA and UAE will also offer help to overcome national needs. The domestic crude oil production amounts to only 15 per cent of the national requirement.
The minister said the government has decided to cut down consumption of furnace oil in the thermal energy plants. The existing refineries will have to cut down furnace oil production.
Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi said we have started night navigation to overcome the rush at the ports. He said the challenges and issues of the ports including KPT and Port Qasim are known to all. He said soon the inquiry report of the Byco affair would conclude addressing the problem and its remedy.
The Ambassador of Azerbaijan Ali Alizada said they are also prepared to give Pakistan oil and gas on deferred payment. Turkmenistan’s Ambassador Atajan N. Movlamov, said besides diesel they can also provide oil and gas products.
Federal ministers, heads of different departments, companies, many ambassadors and oil and gas experts participated in the conference.
Courtesy The News
Courtesy The News
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