The indigenous production of oil has reached 100,000 barrels per day which is highest in the history of the country and is helping cut precious foreign exchange to be spent on the import of petroleum products. Parliamentary Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwana informed this to the National Assembly Thursday during the Question Hour.
She said that 600 mmcfd gas and 2,700 barrel of oil per day have been added to the system with 66 discoveries of gas and six of oil have been made in the country during the tenure of the present government. The government has awarded 46 exploration licenses to different companies, she said, adding that at present 24 companies are holding exploration licenses for gas exploration in the country and are working on 164 blocks.
The secretary said the joint sitting of the parliament has recently passed a Gas Theft Control and Recovery Bill which will greatly help control pilferage of the precious reserve. She informed the house that the country imported petroleum products of worth $9.334 billion during 2015.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority is taking action on adulteration cases in petroleum products and imposing fines according to the gravity of violations. She also urged the public to file complaints if they see any adulteration taking place at any petrol pumps. She said action will be taken on the complaints. Giving details, she said that four off-spec/adulteration cases in petroleum products were registered in OGRA during FY 2014-15: Two cases for off-spec High Speed Diesel (HSD) produced by Oil Refineries (ie Byco Oil Pakistan Limited and Pakistan Refinery Limited), one case of off-spec gasoline imported by Hascol Petroleum Limited and 01 case of off-spec gasoline at a retail outlet of M/s Pakistan State Oil (PSO).
As a punitive measure, the OGRA after serving show cause notices, imposed penalties on the responsible companies according to the gravity of violation/non-conformance. In this regard, OGRA imposed following penalties on the above cases: Rs 0.5 Million on Byco Oil Pakistan Limited, 1.0 million on Pakistan Refinery Limited, 2.0 million on Hascol Petroleum Limited and 0.1 Million on Pakistan State Oil. All defaulter companies have submitted their fined amounts, she said.