ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Energy, Power, and Petroleum Muhammad Ali said on Tuesday that to ease the lives of people and businesses, the government was making all-out efforts to provide energy to the public and industries through imported LNG, particularly during winters.
He was addressing the 29th edition of the Annual Technical Conference jointly held by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Pakistan Association of Petroleum Geo-scientists.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister hoped that this gathering of Geoscientists and Engineers with vast experience would bring a new thought horizon that may lead to new ideas in the exploration of indigenous gas and oil in the county.
He appreciated the theme of the conference, “Exploring the Unexplored: High-Risk Plays and Economic Challenges,” saying that it is an important focus area under the present circumstances.
He said that Allah has blessed Pakistan with a huge sedimentary basin, national and multinational firms are pursuing exploration in different parts of the country, and still nearly 60-70% of the area is “unexplored” and needs to be evaluated for exploration of gas and oil to reduce import of fuel.
FDI in Energy Sector
He further said that the government was trying to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the field of oil and gas and expected that learning from this technical conference and the efforts of the professionals and their contacts with foreign professionals would help international investors become interested in investing in Pakistan’s Oil and gas Sector.
He added that international oil companies look at the assessment of “access” to the geography and technology, operational durability, local communities’ engagement, security, and long-term sustainability of the business.
He said that this is where the recent discoveries of Mari Petroleum and OGDCL will give confidence to the international oil companies on the technical and commercial success. However, security is still a challenge, and this needs special focus from the government so that the professionals can focus on discovering and exploring hydrocarbons in “High-Risk” Plays.
The minister said that the country is energy deficient, and our challenge is how to cope with the situation in the current economic conditions. Fossil fuel contributes about 70-80% to energy mix.
