ISLAMABAD, April 10: A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Pakistan and UAE gas companies here on Saturday to establish a joint venture in gas pipelines projects.

The MoU was signed by the chairman of Trans Asia Gas of UAE, Abdullah bin Ahmed Al-Ghurair, and the managing-director of Interest gas company (ISGSL) in Pakistan, Rasheed Loue.

The petroleum and natural resources minister and officials of the ministry were also present on the occasion.

Under the MoU, the two companies would form a joint venture company which would explore the possibility of investment in the petroleum sector of Pakistan in general and pipeline infrastructure development for import of gas into Pakistan from any of the neighbouring countries, in particular.

At present, it was stated during the signing ceremony, the government of Pakistan through ISGSL was examining the possibility of importing natural gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar.

The ISGSL have already prepared a study on supply and demand of natural gas for the next 20 years in respect of Pakistan. It has projected that there would be a shortfall between supply and demand of natural gas starting from 2009 at the rate of 200 MMCFD per year.

This gap, according to it, would increase by 1500 MMCFD by the year 2015. It was, therefore, imperative for Pakistan to import gas. Accordingly, the gas import project was scheduled to be completed by 2009.

SNGPL (Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited) and Trans Asia Gas, have already signed an MoU to form a joint venture company based in UAE.

The SNGPL, it is stipulated, would provide technical expertise and manpower for the survey, preparation of feasibility studies, design and construction of distribution network for the State of Ajman to be followed by similar work in other states of UAE.

The work on survey and planning of distribution network for Ajman is already in progress. Both these companies are also involved in setting up a system whereby Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) would be supplied to various cities in Pakistan.