PESHAWAR : The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is rich in oil and gas reserves as, according to experts, it has the potential to produce one billion barrels oil and four trillion cubic feet gas which, on proper utilisation will not only boost the economy of the province substantially but would also cater to the energy requirements and bring progress and prosperity for the masses.This was stated on Wednesday at Civil Secretariat Peshawar in a meeting of the cabinet committee formed for establishment of a public limited company for oil and gas exploration and production in the province.
The meeting, which was chaired by Minister for P& D and Energy & Power Rahim Dad Khan and attended by Minister for Health Zahir Ali Shah, Minister for Higher Education Asad, Secretary Energy & Power Suhail Altaf, Secretary Finance Saeed Ahmed and consultant Razi-ud-Din on special invitation, was further told that despite the presence of immense amount of oil and gas reserves in the province no concrete measures were taken in the past to tap them fully that resulted in affecting the pace of development in the province.After the passage of 18th amendment, beside numerous other departments the oil and gas sector, too, is being transferred to the provinces that requires a mechanism to get maximum benefits out of the available resources of oil and gas in KP. The meeting was informed that success ratio of the drillings for finding oil and gas in Pakistan was 1:4 while this ratio on the international level was 1:9. It is expected that this success ratio in the KP would be much better than the rest of the country due to its richness in oil and gas reserves. Foreign companies can better be swayed to invest in this sector if law and order situation improves in the province.
The meeting decided that next meeting of the committee would be convened after Eid-ul-Azha to proceed further for establishing a public limited company for oil and gas exploration in the province, and the consultant was asked to prepare organogram vis-à-vis the head office of the envisaged company, the required staff and their jobs description as well as comparative study of the rental, used and purchased drilling rigs and submit the same during the next meeting of the committee.Addressing the meeting, the Rahim Dad said that KP is affluent in natural resources including oil and gas reserves and all possible measures would be taken to tap them fully for socio-economic uplift of the people of the province. He said the establishment of a public limited company was indispensable in this regard, which would comprise professional and experienced manpower who would work in interference-free environment to give best results – Brecorder
