ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Wednesday that the entire petroleum sector of the country should be completely deregulated, enabling the private sector to invest in the sector.
The Oil and Gas Conference Pakistan (OGCP-2024), was organised by Energy Update in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
Speaking on the occasion, Abbasi said the cabinet had decided to deregulate the petroleum sector in 2018 but unfortunately, it was not yet deregulated.
The petroleum sector in the entire world had been deregulated but in Pakistan, it was partially deregulated, he said.
Let the private sector take over the petroleum sector, he maintained, the former prime minister said, adding that there was a huge potential in the energy sector of the country. Due to running out of gas, the use of LPG was increasing which needed serious efforts to solve the problems on a priority basis.
He went on to say that despite awareness of the grave energy crisis, timely decisions were not taken to address it. “Everyone knows the problems being confronted in the energy sector, now it is the time for taking decisions,” he said.
He said the sector could not flourish in the country due to the absence of taking timely decisions. “Today, we have various effective fora including the SIFC for taking solid and timely decisions”, he added.
Abbasi said it took three years to set up a petrol pump in Pakistan. The refinery policy has been hanging for eight years and everyone was aware of the issue, he said.
Chairman Associated Group Iqbal Z Ahmed stressed the need for removing bureaucratic hurdles to bring improvement in the energy sector. He also called for innovative decisions to flourish the energy sector in the country.
He also stressed the need for the promotion of local production of LPG rather than focusing on importing it.
Other speakers at a conference while highlighting importance of deregulation of the petroleum sector also stressed the need for removing bottlenecks in promotion of oil and gas sectors in the country.
They were of the views that all stakeholders, government and regulators should set together and devise a concrete strategy in larger national interest to counter various mafias creating hurdles in the promotion of this important sector.
MD Attock Refinery Limited Adil Khattak urged for taking strict measures to control smuggling of oil as it caused huge losses to the national exchequer.
He said although some measures were taken to curtail the smuggling of oil but more efforts should be made in this regard.
He went on to say that unfortunately in the last several years, no new oil refinery was set up in the country.
High capital investment was also needed to upgrade the oil refinery, he added.
Chairman OGRA Masroor Khan said that OGRA was providing facilities to the industry through OGRA’s regulatory framework.
The OGRA was also assisting the industry to cope with the emerging challenges, he said.
He said there were 180 terminals in the country and stock for 20 days was available. There were also 3,000 illegal petrol stations for which necessary steps were needed to eliminate such petrol pumps.
Despite the dying sector of CNG, the regulator has received several applications for setting up CNG gas stations, he said.
He further said currently, there were two LNG terminals and the process for setting up three additional terminals was under progress while 10 more applications were received for setting up virtual LNG terminals.
The chairman said that currently, share of LPG in the energy mix stood at 1.3 per cent with 5,000 metric tons per day consumption.
However, he said the LPG share would likely touch 6-8 per cent in the next seven to eight years with 10,000 metric tons per day consumption in the country.
He said there was a huge opportunity to make an investment in setting up LPG storage, transportation and standard cylinders in the country, adding that OGRA was ready to provide full cooperation to the investors in this regard.
One of the participants stressed on gas liberalisation, which may help to curtail Rs1.3trillion circular debt of OGDCL.
Senior Executive Director OGDCL Shahzad Safdar said the study conducted by Makenzie, to shift the energy mix to renewable energy by 2040. In case of non-compliance, countries could face international sanctions, he added.
He further said that 30 percent renewable had been mixed in the overall energy mix. Barrister Sarah Kazmi said various countries had limit or banned the exploration licenses in oil and gas exploration sector to meet climate-related obligations.
Citing example, she said the oil and gas exploration licenses in Ireland and France had been banned.
In England, he said the task had been given to the UK parliament to make legislation on this.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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