ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the government is going to review the 18th Amendment particularly about the gas sharing between the four federating units and to this effect, this particular issue was touched in the CCI meeting.
He told the media persons here on Friday that the government decided to start the consultation process to review the 18th Amendment as one of its clauses says that the province that produces the gas had the right to first utilise the gas and then provide others.
This thing is damaging to the country as a whole, as, if any industrial unit is established somewhere in the Punjab, requiring the gas as fuel but gas is not available because of this clause knowing the fact that the masses of the four federating units will take the benefit of the products of the particular unit.
The allocation of gas in the industrial sector in the Punjab shouldn’t be considered as the share of province. The minister underscored that there was a dire need to review this particular clause by taking the provinces into confidence as the four federating units are parts of a country of which they should need to take care of as one entity.
The minister also vowed to import LNG of (200 mmcfd) in the next eight months after the date of awarding contract to complete terminals under a fast track approach.
He said that the LNG import project would be in unbundled form. For the supply of LNG, the government is working simultaneously on two options that include i) the bid to have the negotiated deal with Qatar for LNG import under G-to-G arrangement and ii) through bidding process from private companies.
He said in the last 10 years, the governments could not import LNG and that had inflicted loss of $500-700 million to Pakistan per annum.“We want to exhaust the attempt for deal with Qatar,” he said and added that Qatar wanted Pakistan to first construct the terminal and then initiate talks for LNG import.
To a question, the minister admitted that the ConcoPhillps Company that visited Pakistan
on the directive of Qatar asked to include ADB that would provide guarantee on behalf of government of Pakistan.
When asked if it was a no-confidence against Pakistan, the minister said that this happened in the world and ADB and WB played their role in such deals.
Mentioning the fast track project for construction of terminals, the minister said that the government was going to issue the tenders next week to complete the fast track terminals for which bidding process would be completed by mid of October. After that Pakistan would initiate talks with Qatar for LNG import. “If the reasonable deal is not done, the other option of importing LNG through private companies would be utilised.”
Under the fast track project, the companies that have facilities of jetties and foreign collaboration will qualify for participating in the bidding process and there are examples to construct the terminals within span of 6-9 months.
From the day of awarding the contract, LNG import will start in a short time of 8 months. However, the deadline to inject the LNG in country’s system will be October 2014, but the government is certain that LNG will be imported before the deadline.
The minister said that the government also wanted to complete the tendering process of retrofitting of terminals initiated by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) 18 months back. The technical bids were opened but financial bids were not opened.
“We want them to be opened and the company that qualifies should be given the contract for import of 500 mmcfd gas. But we will first have to look into the PPRA rules and assess if it is allowed or not,” he said.
About Iran-Pakistan pipeline, the minister said that the government had asked Iran to complete the project on its own.
“However, there is a new government in Iran and in Pakistan also. Foreign Office is looking into the expected impact of US sanctions imposed on Iran over the project. However, the government is very much on it and wants to complete this project by January 2015,” he said.
Turkey and Armenia are getting gas from Iran and enjoying the waiver from US sanctions. Besides it, Japan and India are also getting oil from Iran.
