25 January 2004	Sunday	02 Zilhaj 1424

LAHORE, Jan 24: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) on Saturday held a meeting with Water and Power Development Authority officials at the Wapda House to discuss demand, production, supply and storage of fuel oil.

Petroleum and Natural Resources Federal Secretary Muhammad Abdullah Yousaf, ministry's additional secretary, OCAC managing director and others of the company attended the meeting.

From Wapda side, chairman Tariq Hamid, member (finance) Javed Nizam, member (power) Habibullah Khan and member (water) Muhammad Amin participated.

Petroleum and Natural Resources secretary said such a meeting aimed at understanding each other's views and create better communication between the two sides for achieving positive results, as Wapda was the major consumer of oil and gas sector in the country.

He said best efforts were being made to provide maximum oil and gas quota to the authority to meet its requirements for thermal power generation.

Wapda chairman apprised the OCAC that in addition to other measures to further bring down electricity rates, efforts were under way to utilize maximum natural gas in Wapda's thermal power stations. However, he said, Wapda would continue use of furnace oil for electricity generation in some thermal plants to meet the gas shortages.

He added that under a phased programme, work was in progress to revamp software facilities, hardware and communication network at all Wapda installations to improve the efficiency.

He appreciated the OCAC presentation and said it would help in better understanding the two sides and address the issues regarding oil and gas fuels required by Wapda for running of its thermal plants.

Both the sides agreed to continue holding meetings in the mutual interest.-APP