Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Jadoon on Thursday informed the National Assembly that presently, 47 local and foreign companies were carrying out exploration and production activities in various blocks in the country.
This includes 23 companies acting as operators, he said in his written reply during question hour. He said the blocks were awarded to the exploration and production companies through competitive bidding process. Responding to another question, he said the government was pursuing a parallel strategy with regard to the gas pipeline project.
"If India does not join the project, it is undertaken on a bilateral basis with Iran," he added. He informed the house that separate working group had been constituted with Iran and India for resolving different technical, financial, legal and commercial issues relating to the project.
The working groups had held a series of meetings, he said, and added the proposal for joint venture for oil and gas exploration between Pakistan and China was at the preliminary stage and was being studied by the Chinese companies.
About action taken against the owners of petrol pumps for providing low quantity of petrol and diesel, he said the issues relating to weights and measures rest with the provincial government.
However, the required information was being collected from the provincial governments and oil marketing companies, he added. He said the government had taken various legal and administrative steps to curb the adulteration in petroleum products. To a question, he said it was not a fact that freight component on diesel had been increased by 95 percent. The freight per litre of diesel was Rs 0.65 in November 1999 and it was Rs 0.39 on March 1, 2005.
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