ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Petroleum on Thursday underlined the need for setting up Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) air-mix plants in remote areas, especially where the state-owned gas companies’ infrastructure does not exist.
The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Abdul Qadir, took an update on gas supply schemes for various localities of Balochistan and expressed concern over the non-gasification of its 16 districts. It stressed to make all-out efforts for provision of gas to these areas, besides setting LPG plants in all such localities. Accordingly, the body said a commercial model must be formulated and submitted to it at the earliest. The committee also got a briefing on the matters related to gas supply in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and directed the quarters concerned to ensure the provision of the commodity to the residents and other remote areas of the province in a judicious manner.
Members asserted that it was extremely unfair that the local community of an area that supplied gas to the rest of Pakistan remained deprived of it. Officials of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited assured the committee of maximum efforts to provide gas to the local populace. The body was informed that funds amounting to Rs 441 million had been allocated to rectify gas pressure in this territory. The committee also reviewed progress on the establishment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal and the LNG virtual pipeline at the Gwadar Port.
It recommended ensuring the facilitation of the private companies involved in the LNG business and directed the grant of ‘no objections certificates’ to them at the earliest after fulfilling all required formalities so that the business efforts remained unhampered. It also suggested forming a task force in that regard. Among others, the meeting was attended by Senators Saadia Abbasi, Fida Muhammad, Prince Ahmed Omer Ahmedzai, Afnan Ullah Khan, Shamim Afridi, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah, Muhammad Qasim and senior officers from the Petroleum Division, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and other departments concerned.
