National Assembly body to be briefed on Reko Diq, Thar Coal and Saindak projects

National Assembly's Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Co-ordination would get a comprehensive briefing on Reko Diq, Thar Coal and Saindak projects. It was revealed during the meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination that the Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan did not provided weapons to security guards deployed at Oil and Gas Development Company Limited's (OGDCL) installations in the province despite receiving a huge amount of Rs 20 million from the company for this purpose.
The committee met here with Mir Ahmedan Khan Bugti in the chair on Friday at Parliament House. Haji Roz-ud-Din, Syed Nasir Ali Shah, Dr Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari, Dr Muhammad Ayoub Sheikh, Jul Muhammad Jakhrani, Qudsia Arshad and senior officers of Ministry of IPC and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources attended the meeting.
MNA Syed Nasir Ali Shah raised the issue of Thar Coal project led by scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand. He said Dr Samar is making all-out efforts for completion of Thar Coal project but proper apparatus and instruments are not being provided for this purpose. He suggested the Chairman to call another meeting of the committee for detailed briefing about Reko Diq, Thar Coal and Saindak projects. The other members of the committee also supported the proposal of Nasir Ali Shah.
Chairman of the Committee Mir Ahmedan Khan Bugti has decided to convene a meeting in next few days. Mir Ahmedan Khan Bugti took serious notice of the security matter and directed OGDCL to carryout audit of the amount spent so far and let the committee know as what happened to this large sum of money (Rs 20 million).
Members showed their concerns over the way the amount was handed over to FC Balochsitan by the company even not bothering to check where the money has gone. They recommended special audit of the matter. Additional Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources Naeem Malik was apparently reluctant to directly give the details of this amount and sought the co-operation of the committee by suggesting that the minutes of the meeting should be clipped with the letter to be sent to the company seeking details of the amount.
MNA Haji Roz-ud-Din expressed surprise over the inability of the company to seek details of the amount from FC. Syed Nasir Ali Shah castigated the company for giving less job quota to the people of Balochistan and added that discriminatory attitude is being meted out to the province.
He also sought details of the 83 officials in OGDCL from Balochistan, so that it could be ascertain whether they belong to the province or are from other provinces having domicile of Balochistan. Members from Balochistan pointed out that out of 10,000 employee of OGDCL, 819 jobs for the province are too short.
Gul Mohammad Jakhrani criticised the company for hiring favourites by ignoring the deserving persons and said he would give proof when Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) Managing Director, Basharat Mirza, denied the allegations. MD OGDCL briefed the committee on development, expenditures and audit reports of the company. He said that the OGDCL contributes 56 percent of oil and 22 percent total production of gas. He said that the company has 48 percent reserves of oil and 37 percent reserves of gas when we take total oil and gas reserves into account.
He informed the committee that the company is presently working in 31 blocks including three offshore. He said that total area of exploration acreage in Pakistan is 278475 sq. km of which 61084 Sq. km (22 percent) area is under OGDCL.
He said that OGDCL has given a total of 34 exploration licenses to various companies including 10 blocks in Balochistan, nine blocks in Sindh, seven blocks in Punjab, five blocks in KPK and three blocks are offshore. He said that a total of 11 wells including three in KPK, two in Punjab, three in Sindh and three in Balochistan are under drilling. He said that OGDL produced 56 percent oil (36,574 BOPD) and 44 percent (28,995 BOPD) is produced by others companies. He said that OGDCL earned total profit after tax Rs 63.53 billion in 2010-11, Rs 59.18 in 2009-10 and 55.54 in 2008-09. He said that the OGDCL has trained and experienced human resource base comprising 10,565 employees.