ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Energy (Petroleum Division) was informed on Thursday that no company was interested in offshore oil and gas exploration in the country as the exploration well ‘Kekhla-1’ remained dry in 2019.
The meeting was chaired by committee chairman Syed Mustafa Mehmood. The committee members questioned why there was low interest from international companies in the country’s oil and gas sector.
Oil Minister Musadiq Malik informed the Standing Committee that major oil and gas companies were withdrawing from Pakistan.
The minister said global companies are turning to countries that are easy to do business in.
“The cost of security is also an issue in Pakistan’s oil and gas exploration. Companies have to spend huge amounts of money to ensure the security of their employees and assets in areas where they explore for oil and gas,” the minister said.
However, it added that it was in discussions with two Chinese companies about investing in onshore and offshore exploration activities.
The committee was informed that so far, 467 oil and gas discoveries have been made in the country, of which 96 are oil wells and 371 are natural gas wells.
Malik said there was a need to increase local oil and gas exploration due to a shortage of supply. “We are working on a new oil and gas exploration policy to make it attractive for investments.”
He said global LNG supplies were increasing, citing Qatar, which plans to increase its supplies by 33 percent next year.
Oil Minister Momin Agha outlined the functioning of the ministry.
He said the country consumes 4.2 billion cubic feet of gas every day, of which 1 billion cubic feet is LNG.
The Committee was informed that the circular debt of the gas sector is Rs 2 trillion while subsidy of Rs 130 billion has been given to small domestic gas consumers and this subsidy has been passed on to other users.
Published in Dawn on July 19, 2024