Expressing concern over the growing violation of international standards of Corporation Social Responsibility (CSR) and Petroleum Concession Agreement (PCA) with the Pakistan government by national as well as multinational oil and gas exploration companies.
A civil society organisation, the Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) has announced to launch community awareness campaign with the support of Oxfam GB on the 'social responsibilities' of the oil and gas companies in Sindh.
According to a statement issued by PDI here on Sunday, Sindh has been the largest producer of crude oil for many years, and now its natural gas production is also on the rise, making it potentially the largest producer of oil and natural gas in Pakistan. At present, according to the statement, Sindh produces above 50 percent of oil production and above 70 percent of gas production in Pakistan.
Presently, more than one dozen multinational oil and gas companies are engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas in Sindh and interestingly the majority of those are operating in the disaster-prone districts. Besides inland oil and gas exploration, for the first time, the Pakistan government has also issued licenses to the multinational companies for offshore oil and gas exploration in the coastal waters of Indus Delta (Thatta and Badin).
However, the PDI has shown its concern on the basis of its field reports that the national as well as multinational oil and gas companies operating in Sindh are largely violating the international standards and principles of 'corporation social responsibility (CSR)' as well as the 'petroleum concession agreement' with the government of Pakistan.
The statement said that according to the CSR as well as different sections of petroleum concession agreement the multinational companies are obliged to invest a certain amount of their earning on the social development of the local communities and also give preference to the local communities in jobs in their operation. Besides, these companies are also bound not to degrade the local natural resources and environment while respecting the local as well as international environmental laws and standards. The statement said the PDI survey shows that these companies are largely neglecting the local communities in providing jobs or launching social development programs for them.
On the contrary, local environment is being largely degraded and the local communities have been inflicted with different dangerous diseases due to use of different chemicals by companies during the process of seismic survey, oil and gas exploration and production.
The statement said for the lack of proper monitoring of these multinational companies by the federal and provincial governments in Sindh has made the matters worst. In such a situation, there was strong need of community awareness and mobilisation to enable the local communities to monitor the operations of the oil and gas companies and engage with e companies for the prevention of their livelihoods and securing their basic rights.-PR