Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Tuesday, while pointing to the abundant natural resources in the country, underlined the need for concerted efforts to explore onshore and offshore oil and gas reserves.
He was addressing the Petroleum Conference 2024 as the chief guest. Chief of the Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir was the guest of honour. The prime minister affirmed the government’s readiness to contribute in infrastructure development, logistics, and security to bolster exploration and production efforts.
He further stated that the conference reflected a collective commitment to fully utilise the immense mineral potential so as to ensure energy self-sufficiency and transform Pakistan into a regional exporter of energy.
He appreciated the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Federal Ministry of Energy for fostering an investor-friendly environment by streamlining regulations and procedures.
Country Manager, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company Ali Taha Al-Temimi appreciated unrelenting efforts of the Government of Pakistan in bringing the stakeholders together for formulating policy recommendations and boosting investment in the petroleum sector.
Provincial chief ministers, minister for energy, secretary petroleum, government representatives, policy makers, foreign and domestic investors from the energy and petroleum (E&P) sector and international delegates also attended the conference.
Earlier, Council of Common Interests (CCI) Monday here approved amendments proposed by the Petroleum Division in the Petroleum Policy 2012 for encouraging exploration of new reserves of oil and gas. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was chairing the 51st meeting of the CCI.
On the recommendation of the Petroleum Division, the CCI approved that the old and new licences and leases of petroleum exploration and production companies could be used for exploration of reserves of oil and gas.
This decision of the council would encourage the companies in exploration of new reservoirs of gas.
Under the amendment in the petroleum policy, the gas exploration companies would be allowed to work with their present licences in search of oil and gas reserves.
The meeting was told that 85 percent of the crude oil and 75 percent of the gas used in the country was imported with precious foreign exchange reserves, which was a burden on the national exchequer. The present oil and gas reserves were depleting fast.
The CCI also approved the recommendation of Petroleum Division to give better wellhead price to the oil and gas companies in the 1(F) petroleum zone.
The exploration of oil and gas reserves in the 1(F) zone was a difficult and expensive process due to difficult terrain and lack of facilities in the southern border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
The council approved the activation of leases for oil and gas till economic viability of the reservoirs.
It also approved the draft of Exploration and Production Policy 2024 of Tight Gas.
The policy contained details regarding prices of tight gas, incentives for promotion of exploration, and regulatory framework for its usage.
Tight gas was a kind of natural gas reservoir which could not be extracted with usual means and the gas wells are drilled with more than usual hydraulic pressure and with expensive equipment and technology.
The meeting was told that according to a conservative estimate, 35 trillion cubic feet of tight gas reserves were available in the country.
As per amendments in the new policy, the CCI approved increase in the rate for the sale of natural gas to the third party on commercial basis from 10 percent to 35 percent, which would help in reduction of the circular debt.
The caretaker federal ministers for finance, privatization, law and justice, four provincial chief ministers and high level officials attended the meeting.
