Senate body opposes Qadirpur gas field privatisation

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Senate’s Functional Committee of Problems of Less Developed Area has opposed the privatisation of Qadirpur gas field.

Chairman of the committee Mir Wali Muhammad Badini and Senator Dilawar Abbas, who is also chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee of Petroleum and Natural Resources, said that the committee will strongly recommend the withdrawal of the decision to privatise Qadirpur gas field. They made these remarks during the presentation of Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGC) to the Functional Committee at SSGC head office here on Monday.

Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah, Senator Muhammad Ghufran, Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Senator Sardar Muhammad Jamal Khan Leghari, Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmad, DMD and senior officials of SSGC were also present on the occasion.

They were of the opinion that at a time when the world is running after energy resources, we should not only not the privatise oil and gas fields, but we should instead explore more such fields. “They are like gold mines”, they added.

The Senators also opposed the privatisation of JJVL and said that it should have been with the SSGC to improve its profitability. While appreciating the performance of SSGC, they said that the gas supply company must ensure that all industrial units should get gas.

They also asked SSGC to ensure the supply of gas to rural areas in Balochistan and Sindh, especially gas production areas. They said that development of less developed areas is dependant on the development of developed areas in Pakistan.

Earlier, DMD SSGC Azim Iqbal Siddiqui in the presentation said that the gas company was not resorting to load shedding even in winter. He pointed out that an additional 42 mmcf gas will be supplied to Balochistan by June 2009 to further enhance gas pressure in Quetta, Ziarat and other areas.

He said that the company was supplying gas to 21 districts in Sindh. The remaining two districts Umerkot and Tharparkar will also get gas after the completion of planned projects, he added. Siddiqui said that existing gas fields were depleting fast and the country needs a big discovery or import of gas from Iran or execution of the LNG gas project.

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