SUKKUR, May 24: Federal Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Mir Mohammad Naseer Khan Mengal has said that there is a lot of potential in the oil and gas sector and the government has introduced a very liberal policy for giving oil and gas exploration licences to multi-national and joint-venture companies in Sindh and Balochistan.

He was speaking as chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of Petronas’ Rehmat Gas Plant at Sardargarh, Ghotki district, on Tuesday.

He said the government had taken a number of measures to quicken exploration efforts because of ever-increasing oil and gas demands for our local needs and the energy sector.

He said the long-term policy had been launched by the government and encouraging policies had attracted a number of foreign investors in the oil and gas sector.

He paid tributes to Petronas, Malaysia’s national petroleum corporation, that had succeeded together with joint-venture partners Eni-Pakistan Ltd and Government Holdings Private Ltd in opening the Rehmat Gas Plant.

The minister said the privatization policy of the government had also yielded positive results and the private sector’s participation in oil and gas sector was termed by him “quite promising”.

He disclosed that income tax on the exploration companies was reduced from 55 per cent to 40 per cent.