ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain on Thursday informed the National Assembly that tender has already been floated for laying Pak-Iran Gas pine line project.
Replying to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, he said Chinese consortium had agreed to finance the project, however, now they have shown their inability.
The government has enough funds owing to the gas surcharge to complete the project from its own resources before 2014, he added.
The minister said installation of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals would be started after the approval of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).
He said the government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar for import of 500 MMCFD LNG. It is expected that atleast 18 month would be required for supply of LNG through LNG terminal, he added.
In response to another supplementary question, the minister said the policy of past government for setting up of CNG stations was completely wrong, adding that over 3500 CNG stations were set up in Punjab and 1100 in Sindh.
He said more CNG stations were setup than the requirement which also affecting smooth supply to domestic consumers. He said steps were being taking to rectify the anomalies.
He added that OGRA grants license for setting up CNG stations and the government has imposed complete ban on new one.
The minister said CNG stations were using heavy compressors to suck more gas which affecting supply to the domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.
To a question, Dr Asim said SSGCL only manufactured domestic meters while industrial and commercial meters were imported.
He informed that the meter being manufactured by SSGCL were substandard and due to measurement errors in the locally domestic meters, the company had decided to import 100,000 meters during fiscal year 2008-09.
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