January 07, 2009	Wednesday	Muharram 09, 1430

KARACHI, Jan 6: The standing committee of the senate on petroleum and natural resources has strongly recommended to the government to exploit the Thar coal reserve on an urgent basis to eliminate the country’s dependence on imported fuel and burden on the national exchequer.

This was stated by the committee’s chairman, Syed Dilawar Abbas, while talking to newsmen after attending a briefing on ‘Pakistan Mashal LNG Project’ given by senior officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company on Tuesday.

Committee members Mir Mohammad Naseer Mengal, Rukhsana Zuberi, Haroon Khan, Muhammad Talha Mahmood Aryan, Dr Muhammad Ismail Buledi, Mir Mohabat Khan Marri and Shahid Hassan Bugti also attended the meeting. Sources said the committee members were worried over the privatisation of the existing fields and questioned why new reserves were not being explored and exploited.

Mr Abbas regretted that the Chinese company that had worked for two years on a power plant project in Thar was forced to pack up and abandon the vital project because the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) did not agree on the tariff of electricity to be supplied through the plant. He was of the view that the rates quoted by the Chinese firm were cheaper than those offered by many others.

The senators asked the federal and provincial governments to revive the Thar project at the earliest, commenting that the coal project was not a game of ‘football’ to be played for a lark at the expense of the national interest.

Mr Abbas urged President Asif Ali Zardari to use his good offices with the Chinese leadership to bring back the Chinese company for exploiting the Thar coal deposits.

When asked about the privatisation of the Qadirpur gas field, he said it was time to explore the coal reserves.

He said that the recommendations by the committee were given due consideration at the national level as one of the recent meetings of the committee on the energy crisis, chaired by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, spoke of the gravity of the situation. He said there was no doubt that the company needed total support from the federal and provincial governments to complete successive LNG projects as soon as possible.

Senator Rukhsana Zubairi, a committee member, highlighted the need for harnessing solar energy that she claimed could become a cheap source of power generation in the next few years.

Senator Mengal said the committee advised the SSGC to provide LPG Air-Mix in the far-flung areas of Balochistan, including Naushki, Turbat and Khuzdar, that the company had introduced successfully in Gwadar in 2006.

Earlier, SSGC’s DMD Azim Iqbal Siddiqui gave a comprehensive briefing on the LNG project to the committee members.

While explaining the immediate need for the LNG project, he said the country’s total demand projections for gas in the ‘25-year energy plan’ indicated more than a three-fold increase. In this scenario, indigenous gas supply is not expected to meet the rising demand, and in fact is poised to decline, particularly after 2010. On this premise alone, the plan to launch more than one LNG project had become indispensable, he said.

He said the designed capacity of Pakistan Mashal LNG Project was 3.5 millions ton per annum (mtpa) while LNG-II would bring in another 3.5 mtpa in 2012-13.

The senators were informed about the major milestones regarding the project achieved to date and the key issues and bottlenecks that affected the project developer’s selection.

In reply to a question, Mr Siddiqui said that although a shortfall of 750 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) was seen during the winter, the SSGC was able to maintain “balance” in supply and demand through a gas management programme.