ISLAMABAD, May 12: President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday stressed the need for importing natural gas from regional countries to meet growing energy requirement in the industrial and agriculture sectors.

He was presiding over a meeting held to encourage private sector participation in the supply of gas to far-flung and hilly areas, where laying long pipelines was difficult and expensive.

The president directed the petroleum and natural resources ministry to ensure supply of gas to a maximum number of districts and tehsils in the country by December 2007 as part of the strategy to meet domestic and industrial energy requirements.    

He said the private sector should be facilitated in transporting energy through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects and alternative sources like windmill, solar, etc.    

He said that work on plans like the LNG project at Karachi be speeded up so that the industry got a continuous supply of fuel to sustain the economic growth.    “The people should get gas easily. The provision of gas in hilly areas will stem deforestation and help improve environment,” he said.    

He expressed satisfaction at progress vis-a-vis projects for import of gas from Iran and Turkmenistan. Pakistan, he said, would encourage exploration in oil and gas sectors and asked the ministry to tap maximum energy resources.    

The meeting was informed that Pakistan expected about $1 billion investment in the oil and gas exploration sector over the next few years.—Online/APP