May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 1: The Sindh Network on Corporate Social Responsibilities established by the PDI and Oxfam, non-governmental organisations, would press the oil and gas exploration companies in the province for abiding by their agreement with the federal government.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club, PDI programme officer Ishaque Soomro, Ilyas Khokhar, Tasleem Pasha and others said that Sindh had more oil and gas reserves than the rest of three provinces together, still the province and its people were meted out step-motherly treatment.

There were 96 reserves of crude oil in the country of which 69 were located in Sindh, 23 in Punjab, three in the NWFP and one in Balochistan, making Sindh major oil producer with a share of 56 per cent of total production, they said.

Sindh was in a better position in gas production as out of 140 reservoirs of gas 107 productive reservoirs were in Sindh, 22 in Punjab, four in the NWFP and seven in Balochistan, they said and claimed Sindh was producing 71.01 per cent of total gas produce.

That was the reason, they said, that the national and multinational companies were investing more and more in Sindh and accordingly the province was paying more taxes to the federation.

The network leaders said that the federal government had also started oil and gas exploration in the ocean and work was going on in the coastal belt of Thatta and Badin, which would further increase production.

The companies engaged in oil and gas exploration worked under a license from the federal government called “petroleum concession agreement”, they said.

Under this agreement, the companies were required to ensure environmental protection and social development of the concerned areas including jobs provision, payment of royalty and production bonus.

They said that the exploration companies in this regard had not only to fulfill their obligations under the Environment Protection Act 1997 but also the international social responsibilities.

Under the law, the companies were legally bound to spend $25,000 at the outset and raise it up to $500,000 phase-wise on the welfare of local people, they informed.

The other laws, which applied to these companies included “safety in drilling and production regulations 1974” as well as mining act 1923, they said.

In addition, the companies had to pay 12.5 per cent royalty to the government as well as production bonus, which had to be spent on the development of the concerned areas, they said.