The President’s directive to the Sindh government to complete a bankable feasibility of Thar coal by September 2003 would lend a new momentum to the activities geared towards exploitation and usage of the country’s vast coal reserves, estimated at about 200 billion metric tonnes, —the fifth largest in the world.
The President, who heads the task force on Thar coal himself, is keen to expedite work on development of the indigenous coal reserves.
The focus of the government’s policy remains on aggressive coal-mining and modern usage of coal, employing the latest technologies, including those evolved and perfected by Americans, Europeans and Chinese over the years.
According to policy-making sources, the thrust of the coal policy is on power generation through coal, gasification of coal, including community-based small plants, and production of coal briquettes.
A Chinese firm, M/s Shenhua Group, has already been awarded one block, out of four blocks, at the country’s largest coal reservoir at Thar. The firm would complete feasibility studies within the next six months and thereafter it would start commercial production of coal.
The Chinese enterprise signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on April 29 last for construction of two coal-fired power plants of 300 megawatts each at Thar. Under the MoU, China will invest $600 million to complete within three years, both the power plants on BOO (Build, Own and Operate) basis. China was also contemplating to set up a $150 million gasification plant near the coal field.
In addition to large plants, the government was planning to set up two to three mmcf per day gas plants to meet the energy demands of communities having a population of around 40,000. Initially, it was envisaged to set up these plants in the remote rural areas or those located in the vicinity of coal mines so as to save transportation costs on both the coal and the consequent gas transmission.
The authorities believe that such local gasification plants would particularly be more suitable for remote rural and hilly areas. On the other hand, water-resistant, smoke and odour free coal briquettes would be an excellent alternative fuel for the population in the lower income group, which was currently using kerosene oil, wood or coal in raw form.
Pakistan’s 184,656 million tonnes of proven, indicated and inferred reserves of lignite coal offer tremendous opportunities for commercial exploitation and use as a far cheaper fuel than natural gas, furnace oil and wood. Despite being one of the biggest sources of fuel reserves, Pakistan’s coal had largely remained unutilized for one reason or the other, including lack of investment and modern techniques for its commercial exploitation.
The biggest coal field lies in Thar (Sindh) where the coal reserves are estimated to be over 175,506 million tonnes [mt]. Seven other coal fields in Sindh have 8,617 mt of coal reserves. These include Lakhra, Sonda-Thatta, Jherruck, Oagar, Indus East, Meting Jhimper and Badin with reserves of 1,328 mt, 3,700 mt, 1,323 mt, 312mt, 1,777 mt, 161 mt and 16 Mt respectively.
Other major fields contain reserves of over 533 mt. These include Khost-Sharig-Harnai, Sor-Range-Degari, Mach-Abagum, Duki and Pir Ismail Ziarat in Balochistan with reserves of 76 mt, 34 mt, 23 mt and 12 mt respectively; Salt Range and Makerwal-Gullakhel in Punjab with reserves of 234 mt and 22 mt respectively; and Hangu in NWFP with a reserve of 81 mt. In addition to these major fields, there exist minor coal deposits at Badiuzai, Bahol, Bala Chaka, Bhalgor, Johan, Kachh, and Margot in Balochistan; Cherat in NWFP; Choi in Punjab; Khilla (near Muzaffarabad) and Kotli in Azad Kashmir.
According to the federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, coal-fired electricity generating plants of 3,000 megawatts will be installed in Thar over the next eight years, while 240 megawatts of electricity will be generated from coal reserves in Sonda and Jherruck. After 10 years, the government planned to meet 20 per cent of its total demand for energy through coal.
In addition to power generation, coal can be used in process industries like cement and sugar production. It can also replace kerosene oil and firewood as domestic fuel and thus save the precious forest wealth from depletion.
China meets 80 per cent of its energy needs from coal, US 60, India 40, while globally 38 per cent power was generated through coal. However, Pakistan was currently hardly producing four per cent of power through coal.
The global energy demand is expected to increase by 50 per cent by the year 2020 and a large portion of this demand, about 50-60 per cent in Asia, according to experts, will be met from coal. In fact, clean coal technologies are now making coal more attractive and it is no longer considered to be a dirty fuel.
Further, oil and gas reserves available in Pakistan are expected to last for only 13 years and 25 years respectively, whereas the coal reserves are expected to last for over 100 years. The estimated value of Pakistan’s coal reserves was about $ 5,540 billion.
Coal is formed under shallow water from the decomposition of plant material through a complex process, which takes millions of years of heat, pressure and bacterial action. The first step towards coal formation is peat, which may be formed only in a few million years’ time, while lignite and sub-bituminous formations usually occur in tertiary geological age, ranging from 50 to 60 million years and bituminous to anthracite coals may be created in 260 to 300 million years. Pakistani coal deposits belong to the tertiary age and their quality varies from lignite to sub-bituminous.
Coal-mining: The introduction of the railways in the South Asia Sub-continent had created the demand for indigenous coal. One of the first efforts for obtaining the local coal was made by the colonial government when it took up coal-mining operations in the Salt Range in Punjab. By the end of the nineteenth century, several coal deposits were identified both in Punjab and Balochistan. However, mining-operations here remained limited and the total coal production in Pakistan was less than 200,000 tonnes in 1947-48.
In spite of large-scale industrialization in Pakistan during 1947-1960, the annual coal production in the country remained limited to 400,000 tonnes up to 1960-61. At that juncture, the authorities felt that the country would need 1.5 million tonnes of coal annually by 1965. For achieving this target, the government initiated necessary measures which, amongst others, included liberal tax concessions and incentives for importing mining machinery and trucks. The private sector took advantage of these concessions and production by it alone increased to 1.50 million tonnes during the year 1965-66 against a target of 0.40 million tones. However. the public sector failed to achieve its targets.
In the later years, successive governments neglected coal-mining because the lignite and sub-bituminous coal, produced indigenously, were being used only by the brick kilns as far as its industrial use was concerned. However, in view of the uncertainty surrounding the price of oil and the tremendous amount of foreign exchange involved in the import of oil, the present government decided to make optimum use of the indigenous coal for power generation and also for other industrial purposes.
The government set up a task force in June last year, to develop the coal industry in Sindh, which has bulk of the coal reserves.
Pakistan was importing about six million tonnes of furnace oil annually against a total demand of eight million tonnes, meeting two million tonnes of its requirement from its indigenous production. The President has demanded that industrial and other projects running on thermal power be switched to gas and other alternate sources of energy by June 2003, thus saving over US $ 800 million annually.
Commercial and industrial use of coal offers tremendous potential for accelerating economic growth in the country by creating thousands of new jobs and also making Pakistani products more competitive and thereby helping in giving a boost to the country’s exports.