ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources was informed on Tuesday that supply of Gas from Iran would start by December, 2014 through Iran-Pakistan (IP) Pipeline.

 

Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai, Chairman of the Standing Committee presided over the meeting.

 

Earlier, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resourcesapprised that route survey of IP Pipeline Project has been completed and theprocess of land acquisition is being carried out.

 

The Tender of the Project would be issued soon after completing all the legal formalities. As a long term step to overcome the gas shortage, talks are underway to conclude the agreement for getting gas from Turkmenistan under the Project (Turkmenistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) and supply of gas would start by 2016, the Secretary further added.

 

While discussing gas load shedding in the country particularly in Punjab and Federal Area, the Committee was informed that current gas production in the Country is over 4 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) whereas the demand is over 6 BCFD.

 

Gas demand during the winter increased due to manifold increases inconsumption in the domestic sector in the country. The contributory factorsfor widening gap between demand and supply are continuous increase in gasdemand, depletion of existing gas resources and insufficient/ disproportionate addition of gas from existing and new sources, and the shortfall for the current year is ranging from 668 to 1,061 MMCFD.

 

The present gap is going to increase to around 3,038 MMCFD by 2015. The Committee expressed its grave concern over the increasing energy crisis and directed the Ministry to come with solid proposals in the next meeting so that this Committee could contribute to save the country from the energy crisis, not only for the short term basis but also long term.

 

The Committee also directed Gas Utilities (SNGPL) & SSGCL) to complete the gas development projects of Parliamentarians within stipulated time period.

 

The meeting was attended by Khurram Jehangir Wattoo, Nawab MuhammadYusuf Talpur, Chaudhry Asghar Ali Jatt, Sh. Aftab Ahmad, Chaudhry Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, Rana Afzaal Hussain, Mir Ahmdan Khan Bugti, Begum Shehnaz Sheikh, Dr. Donya Aziz and Syed Haider Ali Shah MNAs, and senior officers of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, OGRA, SNGPL and SSGCL.