ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The government is contemplating to host a Pak-China energy forum in near future inviting the public and private sector oil and gas companies to explore areas of cooperation in upstream and downstream petroleum activities between the two friendly countries.

This was stated by Additional Secretary Petroleum Shaukat Hayat Durrani here on Tuesday while talking to a six-member delegation from China National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) headed by Zhang Yuquing.

Shaukat Hayat said that Pakistan was endowed with vast hydrocarbon potential and all out efforts were being made to tap them at a fast pace to cut down high oil import bill, says a press release.

He said that the government had also chalked out a 20-year comprehensive energy plan to meet growing energy need of the country exploiting indigenous energy resources and through import of gas from Iran-Turkmenistan and Qatar besides establishing infrastructure to handle import of LNG.

He said there was a lot of potential and opportunities for the Chinese companies to participate in the upcoming projects of costal refinery, LNG, cross border gas pipelines, oil pipeline and onshore, offshore exploration activities for the mutual advantage.

About oil and gas development activities in Pakistan, the Additional Secretary said during the last five years the petroleum sector had witnessed a tremendous growth in oil production from 55,000 to 66,000 bpd, gas from 2 billion cubic feet to 3.7 billion cubic feet and LPG to 1,500 tons per day.

The head of the Chinese delegation expressed satisfaction over the pace of cooperation between the two countries in oil and gas sector and evinced keen interest to work closely for further boosting volume of interaction in the days ahead.—APP