ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan Friday said his ministry would announce new petroleum policy soon after completing necessary consultations with the provinces and stakeholders.
“As per vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government is drafting the petroleum policy. It will be a uniformed policy which will bring major changes in the areas of oil, gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG)” he said while taking to media persons.
He said the ministry had also awarded 10 new blocks for exploration in different oil and gas potential areas through open bidding. He said 10 companies had successful participated in the bidding.
The foreign companies had also showed willingness to invest in offshore exploration, he added.
He said federal government had awarded one block to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while one each block would also be awarded to other provinces.
To a question, he said the government had decided to give adequate representation to provinces in boards of directors of 15 companies working under petroleum ministry as previous government had neglected provinces.
He said board of directors of all the companies would be reconstituted and chief executive of the companies would be appointed on merit.
The minister said SSGPL and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) endured Rs157 million losses for the first time in history during PML-N’s rule.
The government, he said, had decreased sales tax rate on LPG from 17 percent to 10 percent.
He said Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had also decreased the LPG price for the month of December by Rs14 per kg giving benefit to domestic and commercial consumers of Rs165 and Rs 635 respectively on each gas cylinder.
Opposition's criticism about hike in gas prices, he said gas prices had been increased by 10 to 15 percent for the majority of consumers using 50 to 200 cubic metres of gas per month.
The increase had been made to meet the deficit facing gas supply companies such as Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company, he added.
The minister said the companies had been given a target to reduce the losses.
To a question, he said there would be no load shedding of gas across the country during the current winter season.
He said Saudi Arabia had expressed the desire to invest in oil refinery and its cost, capacity and other modalities would be finalized soon.
He said the UAE government was also willing to make investment in establishing an oil refinery in Hub areas. He said land for the purpose had also been acquired.
Ghulam Sarwar said the government was also moving forward on TAPI gas project and the ground-breaking of the project would be expected in the month of January in Afghanistan.
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