ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has provided over 1.863 million gas connections to domestic consumers during the last five years which shows the outstanding performance of the ministry in current scenario.
Apart from the domestic gas connections, the ministry has also provided as many as 19117 commercial and 2420 industrial connections, said an official source.
The official stated that the ministry has set priority for providing gas connection and the domestic consumers are on the top of this list.
"The figures show that over 1.863 million gas connections to
domestic consumers from 2009 till the end of last year is satisfactory, " the source maintains.
The officials remarked that the ministry had a target to provide gas connections to all and sundry without any discrimination.
The official sources added the government spent $ 4.3 billion on import of petroleum crude from July-March 2014 compared to $4.0 billion in corresponding period last year, posting a growth of 6.2 percent.
The country's import of crude oil remained 44.9 million barrels during the same period compared to 40.9 million barrels in corresponding period last year, reflecting 11 percent growth, says an official document.
However, the document said local crude extraction posted a growth of 12 percent as it stood at 23 million barrels in July-March 2014 compared to 20.5 million barrels in corresponding period last year.
Realizing that oil and gas reserves are dwindling, the government has accelerated its efforts and this year awarded 50 petroleum exploration blocks to eight companies including local and foreign companies.
The document said the country had exhausted more than half of the original domestic recoverable oil reserves, necessitating solid measures for exploring more oil and gas reserves to meet the growing energy needs.
The document reveals original recoverable reserves on June 30, 2013 were 1,102.6 million barrels with 731.5 million barrels (68 percent) cumulative production of oil and 371 million barrels (32 percent) balance recoverable reserves.
Similarly the worrisome factor is that gas reserves are depleting and if gas consumption grows annually even at moderate rates and the present recoverable reserves will largely be exhausted by 2025.
The document said when this limit approaches the marginal cost of gas supplies will rise.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.