Oil & gas: speakers undersocre need for revisiting 18th Amendment

The parliament must revisit the certain parts of the 18th Amendment of the constitution dealing with the oil/gas sector to remove the confusion on various matters including oil/gas exploration, production and distribution. This was the crux of a seminar titled "18th Constitutional Amendment: Oil and Gas - Impact on Exploration and Beyond" held here on Tuesday arranged by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).
Energy experts and lawyers, speaking on the topic urged the parliament to revisit the 18th amendment to remove confusions that were creating hindrances in oil/gas exploration for the last six years virtually halting the developmental activities in one of the most important sector of the economy.
Despite passing of six years new exploration licenses were not being issued and a number of foreign companies have either left or were on the exit phase due to the lacunas and wrangling between the federation and provinces for legislative and executive controls.
Energy lawyer Muhammad Arif in his keynote address said that in the presence of the Regulation of Mines and Oil-fields and Mineral Development (Government Control) Act of 1948, which is still intact, there has been no change constitutionally in the legislative and executive authority post-18th amendment, as being demanded by the provinces. Ownership meant sharing of royalty and did not confer the legislative and executive authority, he clarified.
He also called for an effective and efficient institutional arrangement to the satisfaction of the provinces in this regard. After the passage of the amendment the federating units were calling for giving them representation in Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and other concerned departments. So keeping in view the situation revisiting the 18th constitutional amendment was need of the hour, otherwise it will not only halt oil/gas development activities but will create further hurdles.
The policy forum was chaired by Mirza Hamid Hasan, former secretary, water and power, and member IPS-National Academic Council and was attended by a number of policy analysts, energy lawyers and government officials. Hasan, in his concluding remarks, categorised the post-18th amendment issues affecting the oil and gas sector as those which were directly related to the amendment and those which were arising due to its misinterpretation or mismanagement, lack of homework and blurred vision of the concerned authorities. He suggested the creation of an authority that could act as an interface between the federal government and the provinces to sort out bottlenecks and confusions caused by the same.