Pakistan sees major oil and gas shortage by 2010

Daily Times, April 4, 2005

Pakistan sees major oil and gas shortage by 2010
* Pakistan to ask Qatar for 2 bcf a day through pipeline
* Tripartite meeting on April 12 to discuss Daulatabad gas field reserves
* ‘No formal proposal by India on pipeline route’

By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will face a shortage of about 20 million tonnes of oil equivalent in five years time, jumping to 100 million tonnes by 2025, Ahmad Waqar, Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry secretary, said on Monday.

Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day workshop on ‘Oil and gas generation and accumulation in Pakistan’ organised by the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, he said, “There is a need to meet this gap. Gas pipelines will be necessary in addition to indigenous production.”

Mr Waqar said Pakistan had a lot of potential in the oil and gas sector, which needed to be explored, and that the government was trying its best to tap the country’s resources.

He said the government had set a target of drilling 100 exploratory wells this year from an average of 55 to 60 each year previously and planned a major road show in London on April 26 and April 27 to attract investment in this effort.

Later, he told Daily Times that Pakistan would ask Qatar for 2 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas a day through the proposed $1.88 billion Gulf-South Asia (GUSA) pipeline project. Pakistan would make its request to Qatar during a meeting of a Joint Technical Committee in Doha on April 24 and April 25, he added.

Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the second deputy prime minister of Qatar, had earlier refused to provide 2 bcf of gas every day, saying Qatar had too many commitments with other countries and would only provide 1.6 bcf of gas that it had promised Pakistan in 1990.

Mr Waqar said Pakistan would try convincing Qatari authorities to consider the request since gas demand in the country had increased considerably in the wake of increasing economic activity.

He said Pakistan would also negotiate the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to meet the country’s requirements till the formal finalisation of the import of gas through pipelines from Iran, Qatar and Turkmenistan.

The proposed GUSA project will have a 1,610-kilometre-long, 44-inch diameter pipeline running offshore along the Iran-Pakistan coastline up to Jiwani (near Karachi). It will transport 1.6 bcf of natural gas with a daily off-take of 1,000 million cubic feet.

He also said the steering committee meeting on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project would be held in Islamabad on April 12 and April 13, which would discuss Turkmenistan’s report on the Daulatabad gas field’s reserves.

He said the steering committee consisting of the energy ministers of the three countries would discuss the issues of gas storage and security in Afghanistan and a modus operandi would be planned to resolve the issues.

Mr Waqar also said, “We have not received any formal proposal from India about the route of the gas pipeline through populated areas to ensure the pipeline’s security.” He said India wanted gas at its border and should not be concerned about the pipeline’s route, as this would be decided by Pakistan.

He said if India wanted the pipeline route according to its wishes, it could be worked out, but India would have to share the additional cost for laying the gas pipeline.

Meanwhile, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said India had not indicated when the Indian oil minister would visit Pakistan to discuss the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

He also said Pakistan would finalise which of the three proposed gas pipeline projects to start first by the end 2005.

He said the Asian Development Bank and World Bank were also involved in the pre-feasibility and feasibility reports of the three proposed pipeline projects.

He said Pakistan would not go for just one of the four options to import gas because the country’s demands were high. It would instead try and explore all four options: gas pipelines from Qatar, Turkmenistan and Iran and the import of LNG from Qatar.