October 29, 2002	Tuesday	Sha’aban 22,1423

ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: President General Pervez Musharraf on Monday asked for increasing gas production to meet the rising demand and focusing on country’s huge coal reserves for future gasification.

He gave this directive during a briefing on natural gas resources, supply and demand, exploration activities and options to import gas by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.

Later talking to newsmen, the Petroleum Minister Usman Aminuddin said the President approved a number of projects for increasing gas production.

He said the meeting reviewed various projects to meet country’s gas requirement in the next 20 years and making maximum use of indigenous resources to cut oil import bill that currently accounts for 30 per cent of the total import.

The meeting reviewed various options and feasibility of importing gas from Qatar, Iran and Central Asia .

“We must increase the availability of gas to meet the rising demand and look for ways and means to making it available to maximum number of people,” the President said.

He asked for focusing on country’s huge coal reserves which are currently estimated at 182 billion tons.

The President underlined the need of setting up small coal-based gas plants to meet the domestic needs.

The meeting approved the first such plant to be established at Bhakar. For the first project, the government will import the plant from Poland while for other similar projects, these will be manufactured locally.

The President also approved the feasibility study for setting up major coal-based gasification plant in the Thar area in the next four to five years to produce pipe-line quality gas and other chemicals for the industrial use.

The meeting was informed that the technology for this purpose has been identified and the study was now being carried out for its adaptation in the local environment.

The project will have an added advantage of water availability in the Thar area which could also be used for the irrigation purpose, besides its use for the project.

The meeting also approved the project of compressing natural gas for the domestic use in the Sumandari area of Faisalabad. The CNG project will be established in the next six months.

Responding to a question, the minister said that 18 dormant gas fields will be used by compressing natural gas of these fields for domestic use. Such CNG projects will save the huge cost incurred on transmission lines and infrastructure needed for distribution of gas. The meeting was informed that the private sector will be encouraged for its transportation and distribution.

It was observed that the coal-based gasification plants and CNG plants would help to provide gas in the far-flung areas, specially in the Northern Areas.

The meeting was also informed about the efforts to making maximum use of coal resources in the power generation. The current coal-based power generation is merely one per cent of the total power production.—APP