ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday asked Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) to adopt good governance and transparent modern procurement policies and undertake capacity building on professional lines to increase production of oil and gas in the country.

Chairing a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House to review performance and future plans of OGDC, the prime minister directed it to share the best practices adopted by similar organizations around the world in order to come up to the global standards in term of major indicators, says a press release.

“The company should benchmark itself against internationally recognized best practices to increase its efficiency.”

The prime minister was informed that commissioning time of some big projects had been reduced, including Qadirpur Compression, Dhodak Expansion, UCH-II (power plant), Tando Allahyar and Sinjhoro, where the completion period had been reduced by four to 18 months. He directed the company to further expedite Qadirpur and Tando Allahyar projects.

The OGDC managing director in his presentation said that the company was vigorously pursuing the drilling of 57 wells during 2005-06 as against an average of 17 wells drilled in the preceding three years. The company plans to drill 107 wells during the year 2006-07 to reduce dependency on imported crude. He said an increasing number of multinationals were now investing in the drilling activities.—APP