ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division organised a national seminar to deliberate upon the issues of natural gas supply and pricing matters at the prime minister's secretariat, Islamabad. The seminar witnessed strong participation from the federal government, parliamentarians, provincial ministers, provincial energy departments, corporate executives, and energy experts.
The discourse was very productive and led to suggestions on the way forward for issues pertaining to the gas sector of Pakistan.
Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan voiced the hope that the current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan would address the daunting challenge of energy crisis too and would achieve supply of affordable energy to the people.
He added that the energy sector should be prioritised as a vital national interest, and dealt with mutual coordination of the provinces and federation to take the maximum benefit of natural resources of the country.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar noted that the serious challenges in terms of gas availability from domestic sources had hit the country because of insufficient exploration and production activities in the last 10 years, while the demand was rising steadily.
The snow-ball effect of gap between supply and demand of natural gas would also disturb all the provinces in an adverse manner. He underscored the need of national consensus to deal with the impending gas crises based on financial sustainability and affordability of gas supply.
He expressed concern that otherwise the industry would face gas curtailments in the winters when the domestic demand more than doubles. The gas summit also featured national and international speakers in field of energy.
This was followed by group discussions, which presented specific ideas that ranged from gas supply options (indigenous/import), financial sustainability and weighted average cost of gas, gas infrastructure development needs and open access regime for LNG.
The Petroleum Division will continue consultations with all the provinces and related departments, and prepare national consensus for recommendations to the Council of Common Interests.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020