ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources on Friday categorically confirmed the initiation and in time completion of North-South gas pipeline project as per schedule.
“Construction of North-South gas pipeline project will hopefully start and complete as per its given schedule as governments of Pakistan and Russia have signed the agreement, not by individuals,” official sources in the Ministry said.
Commenting on some reported sanctions on a Russian company having contract to lay the pipeline, they told APP that Pakistan had nothing to do with, “If any Russian company had been blacklisted under any international sanction, it (Russia) will assign the task to someone else.”
However, they said, Pakistan had not been officially conveyed about any sanction imposed on the company that had to lay the pipeline being built operate and transfer (BOT) basis.
Under the project, a 1100 kilometer pipeline from Karachi to Lahore with Russian investment of $2 billion would be built.
They said the project was of great significance for Pakistan as it would help supply the additional volume of imported gas from the country’s South to rest of the country.
Due to the efforts of the present government, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal was constructed in Karachi in a record time. Past governments had failed to take concrete steps for the import of LNG to overcome energy and fuel crisis, they remarked.
They said around 12.4bcm (billion cubic meters) of gas would be transported from Karachi to Lahore per annum through a 42 inch diameter pipeline, and “the project’s first phase is likely to be completed by December 2017.”
The pipeline would connect liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals located in Karachi with those of Lahore, they added.
The sources said Pakistan was passing through a severe energy crisis and the project would prove to be a milestone to overcome it.
Source: APP
