An international conference on petroleum by the name of ‘Pak Oil &Gas Igniting Growth’ was held in Islamabad on 11th February 2019. Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi and Chairman, Board & CEO TAPI Pipeline Company Limited Muhammetmyrat Amanov addressed the conference, while CEOs and senior management of leading Pakistani and global petroleum companies participated in panel discussions.
The need for amending the Petroleum Policy 2012 was repeatedly highlighted throughout the meeting, While commenting on that Managing Director Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) Zahid Mir suggested that the policy of Petroleum Policy 2012 related to pricing is fine but it needs to be further revisited in terms of other facilitation for oil and gas sector in the wake of global prevailing environment.
Managing Director Polish Oil & Gas Company, Pakistan Branch, Andrzej Kaczorowski in his address pointed out the complexity of procedures needed to be followed to invest in Pakistan. He urged the government to make it short and simple to attract investors.
It was revealed by the Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan that Pakistan fulfills 80 percent of its energy requirement by importing oil from international market. Furnace Oil is used in thermal power plants which leaves a huge dent on the foreign exchange every year. Now the government has decided to Phase out the use of furnace oil in the thermal power plants.
Pakistan is blessed with huge resources of oil and gas which require extensive oil and gas exploration. All eyes are on Karachi offshore drilling project which is expected to discover huge reserves of oil.
