ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Pakistan is being dubbed as a success story in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) Sector and the price of imported gas is the lowest in the World.
While enumerating government’s performance in Oil and Gas Sector at a News Conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, the prime minster said that as a result of imported LNG gas, the wheel of industry and fertilizers has been revived, adding that additional imported gas will also be provided to the domestic consumers.
The prime minister said that the government has ensured cost effective and efficient supply of gas to all the consumers in the Country. He said that we have addressed the issue of gas shortages and today the World’s prominent companies are expressing interest to invest billions of dollars in the LNG Sector.
Khaqan Abbasi said that the power generation from the gas is also helping produce cheap electricity and helping save billions of dollars in foreign exchange. He said that gas fired plants are more efficient than those powered by the furnace oil.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reminded that Pakistan imported one million tones of fertilizer when it assumed the power in 2013. However, he added that, as a result of availability of sufficient gas, we were able to export 600,000 tones of fertilizer last year.
The prime minister said that 116 oil and gas discoveries were made during the last five years which is a record. He said that these discoveries added 35,000 barrel of oil and 900 million cubic feet of gas to the system.
Abbasi said that 445 wells were drilled during this period, and of these, 225 were exploratory wells. He said that the total discoveries reflect the success rate of 50 percent which is a great achievement.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that we laid transmission line of 17,000 kilometer of 42 inch diameter at a cost of Rs 200 billion. He added that we have also made arrangements for the laying of North South Pipeline with the cooperation of Russia and China.
In addition, the prime minister said that we also laid distribution pipelines of 25,000 kilometer which is a record.
The prime minister said that over the last five years, two million new gas connections were provided and these were provided through a transparent mechanism.
Talking about the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, the prime minister said that work on this important project is continuing and the Country will start receiving gas from it by 2020.
