February 1, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Nouraiz Shakoor on Friday asked Romania and France to invest in oil and gas sector as it offers tremendous potential and opportunities for foreign investment.

He made this offer while talking to Romanian and French Ambassadors in Pakistan, Emil Ghitulescu and Yannick Gerard who separately called on him.

Nouraiz Shakoor, in his meeting with Romanian Ambassador, said that Pakistan is endowed with vast hydrocarbon reserves, and the government was making specific endeavours to exploit them at a fast pace in order to boost this vital field of economy.

He said there are great opportunities for Romanian investors in Regional Gas Pipelines and Coastal Refinery Project in which the Romanian government is already cooperating with Pakistan.

The Minister asked Romanian investors to invest in coal and mineral exploration in Pakistan.

The Ambassador expressed the need to further promote Pakistan-Romania cooperation in other fields and proposed exchange of visits by the experts from both the countries.

In his meeting with French Ambassador, Nouraiz said that government has been offering an attractive package of incentives to foreign investors in oil and gas exploration and production activities.

He said French company Totelfina has already made investment in offshore oil exploration.

The minister briefed the Ambassador about the ongoing and future oil and gas development programmes, expansion and up-gradation of oil refineries, promotion of gas, exploiting heavy coal fields in Thar and copper-gold projects in Balochistan province.

The Minister said French investors can also cooperate in other sectors including privatization process.

The Ambassador stressed to further enhance Pakistan-France cooperation in various fields including oil and gas sector.—APP