We refer to the letter published on March 19 by Mr G.A. Sabri (spokesmen Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources).

It is absolutely untrue regarding the point that the all stakeholders have been consulted for Pakistan Gasport Ltd and impediments removed, as referred to in the letter. An EIA report for Pakistan Gasport Ltd terminal was considered at a public hearing held on 22 November last year and Shehri found the project deeply flawed and raised the various points.

The main point is that the LNG tankers will travel up the Indus estuary, past residential localities, fishing villages and other port traffic, to discharge their cargo at a floating storage.

A single modern LNG tanker typically holds one hundred twenty-five thousand cubic meters of LNG.

That gas can form between about twenty and fifty billion cubic feet of flammable gas-air mixture. The energy content of a single standard LNG tanker (one hundred twenty-five thousand cubic meters) is equivalent to fifty-five Hiroshima bombs.

In the EIA report only minor villages are stated as being within a 12km radius. However, the entire Korangi area, large sections of Malir, Jinnah International Airport, DHA Golf Club and the like fall within 12 km of the proposed LNG terminal.

This terminal will be a magnet for any fanatical group wishing to cause massive damage to Karachi. In PGL's EIA report, two evaluations of alternative locations for the re-gasification terminal have been summarily dismissed "as it was incurring high cost as well as advanced technology in laying conduit, besides operation and maintenance." It seems that little value is being attached to human life and safety.

In Pakistan the guilty are rewarded and the innocent punished. In 1989, Exxon Valdez tanker spilled crude oil off Alaska. In 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75 per cent of the $507.5 million damages. In 2003, Tasman Spirit tanker spilled crude oil in Karachi's sea in KPT jurisdiction. This incidence was the worst coastal environmental disaster in Pakistan.

To add insult to injury, the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) faces a 6.57 billion dollar damage suit filed by the owners of the Tasman Spirit in a London-based arbitration court.

If the PGL LNG project is rammed through as per the existing arrangement, it has the potential to cause a disaster in Karachi the size of which will make the Bhopal catastrophe in India or the 9/11 tragedy in USA look small.

SHEHRI-CBE
Karachi