Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources is planning to hold four road-shows abroad aimed at promoting the new petroleum policy and attracting foreign investors in oil and gas sector. "The ministry has planned four road-shows each in Canada, USA, Scotland and UK. However, the venues are yet tentative, which can be changed," a senior official of the ministry told APP here.
The exact dates and venues for the road-shows would be announced as soon as the programme is finalised, he said. During the road-shows, the official said the recently announced investment friendly petroleum policy will be highlighted to woo the investors in the sector for the benefit of the country.
The ministry has recently announced the petroleum policy-2009 offering a number of incentives for the investors in oil and gas sector, which also aims at making the country self-sufficient in the sector and overcome the growing energy demand during next three to four years.
Under the policy, the government will also take benefit from the expertise of local and foreign oil and gas exploration companies in order to exploit the maximum potential existed in the sector. While, the government has set a target of drilling 90 to 100 new oil and gas exploratory wells during the year 2009 to meet country's energy demand.
The policy also provides 50 percent jobs quota to local people in the area of each exploratory block, while the scope of training fund utilisation has been extended to cover internship/scholarships and training of the local inhabitants in different institutions for which plans would be prepared.
The official said Pakistan is spending huge foreign exchange on the import of the oil and the new initiative announced by the government would benefit the country to reduce its import bill and meet its energy requirement from its own resources.