National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources on Tuesday decided to summon officials of FIA, OGDCL and MOL on oil theft in Karak Oil Field. Presided over by Chaudhry Bilal Ahmed Virk, the committee discussed and approved PSDP of M/o Petroleum and Natural Resources for financial year 2016-17 amounting to Rs 992.632 million to be spent on three ongoing and two new projects of the Geological Survey of Pakistan.
While discussing the calling attention notice of Dr Shireen Mehrunissa Mazari, MNA regarding complete lack of information about LNG deal involving huge amount of money, the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources informed the committee that the government following an unbundled approach entered into separate contracts for LNG procurement and re-gasification. He said that PSO has been authorised to purchase LNG through agreement with Qatar Gas on government to government arrangement. The deliveries of LNG are expected to start in March 2016 under the 15-year Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA). He further informed that Engro Elengy Terminal (Pvt), Ltd was awarded contract for establishment of LNG re-gasification Terminal through competitive bidding and fulfilling codal formalities. He said that the LNG import would minimise the gas shortfall in the country. The committee decided to continue its discussion on the calling attention notice in its next meeting.
The committee also discussed question moved by Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan regarding theft of oil with the connivance of employees of PSO, which was referred to the committee by the House. The committee was apprised that there was no theft of oil by the employees of PSO as pointed out by the member; however, there was reported theft of oil in oil field in District Karak. The Secretary M/o Petroleum informed the committee that the reported incident of theft on oil field jointly owned by MOL, OGDCL and PPL was being interrogated by FIA and is expected to be concluded shortly. He said the outcome of the inquiry would be presented before the committee in its next meeting. The committee decided to summon officials from MOL, OGDCL, PPL District Administration Karak and FIA to discuss the issue in its next meeting.
Petroleum Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi confirmed that oil was stolen from the pipeline in Karak Oil Field. Akram Khan Durrani suggested that if a company is involved in oil theft, the government should blacklist the company. The officials of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) contradicted the reports of Rs 142 billion oil theft . The officials of the Geological Survey of Pakistan informed the committee that coal has also been explored in Badin which is far better than coal of Thar.
The meeting was attended by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, MNAs;Muhammad Arshad Khan Laghari, Malik Ihtebar Khan, Rana Afzaal Hussain, Syed Muhammad Saqlain Shah Bukhari, Chaudhry Khalid Javaid Warraich, Nawab All Wassan, Nasir Khan Khattak, Abdul Waseem, Akram Khan Durrani, Shafqat Mehmood, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Secretary M/o P&NR and other senior officers of the concerned departments.
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