ISLAMABAD: The circular debt of the Oil and Gas Company Limited (OGDCL) reached Rs 701 billion, which is further swelling. This revelation was made in the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum's meeting held on Tuesday. Muhammad Abdul Qadir chaired the meeting.

In a briefing, officials of the OGDCL said that the receivable against government owned companies such asthe Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGPL), the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) was growing which was alarming. The principal amount of receivable was Rs531 billion and rest was late payment surcharge (LPS).

Members committee also expressed their dissatisfaction over decline in profit of the company, despite major shareholder in exploration of locally-produced oil and gas deposits. In 2013-14, the profit of the company stood at Rs124 billion, which reduced to Rs100 billion in financial year 2019-20.

The committee was further informed that no exploration activities at Kholu (Balochistan) blocks and other blocks in the KP took place due to various reasons in the last 24 years.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021