ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the government is reversing deregulation of pricing mechanism of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which was introduced in 2000, to control artificial price hike.
The minister said this after the signing of a petroleum concession agreement and exploration licence with the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) over Kulachi Block. He said the government considering permanent solution for the artificial increases in LPG prices.
Khaqan Abbasi said that a summary regarding fixation of LPG prices by the government has already been forwarded to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and hopefully the proposal would be approved by the CCI in its coming meeting.
He said the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had not been successful in controlling inappropriate rise in LPG prices this season as marketing companies and dealers charged more than Rs700 per cylinder premium to the consumers.
Responding to a question, the minister said that a summary on natural gas price adjustment would be approved within this month.
Replying another question, Abbasi said that his ministry was trying to import liquefied national gas (LNG) from Qatar, Brunei or Malaysia and expressed his confidence that imported LNG would be inducted into the national system by March 31 this year. He said the government efforts to push for increased domestic production of hydrocarbon resources has resulted in increasing oil production beyond 100,000 barrels per day.
He said the exploitation of indigenous hydrocarbon resources was the top priority of the government to bridge the gap between demand and supply.
Earlier, the petroleum exploration licence was awarded to OGDCL for Kulachi Block, spread over four districts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Kulachi Block is located in D I Khan, Layyah, D G Khan and Bhakkar districts. The total area of the block is 2,495 square km and minimum firm work commitment is $10.10 million. Apart from minimum work commitment, the company is obligated to spend a minimum of $30,000 per annum in the block on social welfare schemes.
Mr Abbasi said that his ministry had taken all provinces on board in finalising a model petroleum concession agreement and model exploration licence and awarded 50 exploration blocks on provisional basis to nine exploration and production companies.
These included 21 blocks in Balochistan, 15 in Punjab, six in Sindh and seven blocks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Fata.
The minister said that since taking over last year, the government push had also led to spudding of 154 wells and 45 discoveries. As a result, 500mmcfd of gas and around 34,000bpd of oil has been added to the system.
