Dera Bugti: OGDCL officials inflict Rs 290 million loss on entity

Some senior officials of the state-owned Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) are said to have caused a Rs 290 million financial loss to the entity by taking on rent 2,900 acres of unutilised land at Uch Gas Field, Dera Bugti, Balochistan, it is learnt. According to official documents available with Business Recorder, the company constituted a committee to find out the actual requirements of the land to be used for different purposes at Uch Gas Field on May 15, 2015.
After critically reviewing the area acquired by Uch Gas Field and undertaking a detailed assessment exercise, the Committee noted the following ground realities of different areas of land: (i) total area required for main ROW from Uch plant to wells and flow lines Right of Way (ROW) is 260 acres, (ii) land required for link roads from wells to ROW along with pipeline ROW is 150 acres; (iii) 90 acres of land is required for ROW from Uch plant to Mid Valve (UPL sale line) and Frontier Constabulary (FC) posts; (iv) 100 acres of land needed for ROW from Uch residential camp to Jarwar bridge; (v) 60 acres of land required for 33 gas wells in Uch field; (vi) 300 acres of land required for Uch-I and Uch-II plant/Zealcon (Residential/ workplace); (vii) 190 acres required for Residential camp (Uch Gas field + EFP-1 + FC); (viii) 125 acres for airstrip including approach road and waiting lounge (ix) 35 acres for pipe yard.
The company officials had acquired a total of 4,300 acres from different Bugti chieftains but the Committee maintains that OGDCL needed only 1,400 acres and the remaining 2,900 acres were unnecessary, therefore it should no longer be taken on rent.
Following the findings and recommendations of the committee the Manager Land, OGDCL, on 13th November, 2015 issued a letter to all those concerned but in January 2016 Managing Director (MD) OGDCL and Abdul Rauf Khajjak General Manager (GM) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) paid Rs 430 million as rent to five individuals of the Bugti tribe for 2015 and 2016. The top management of the company thus not only caused a financial loss of Rs 290 million to the company but also acquired the land that was not required for the next three years, which will cause an additional financial loss to the OGDCL.