OUR STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources on Tuesday decided to place Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) under the administrative control of petroleum ministry and Dr Asim has endorsed this decision. Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain supported the decision of the committee during its proceeding and also said government has decided to levy gas surcharge which will be enforced next to the approval from the federal cabinet. Dr Asim said this while briefing the NA Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, which met here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Talib Hassan Nakai. Dr Asim Hussain told the committee that Petroleum Ministry would unveil new gas policy within the next two months. This new policy envisages 14 years imprisonment for gas thieves. This policy will be presented in the National Assembly session. He said that imposition of levy on LPG would accumulate hefty revenue of Rs 5b. Distributors and not the consumers would bear the burden of this levy, he pointed out. However, after the imposition of surcharge gas would be Rs 6 per unit expensive. Increasing trend in value of dollar is a matter of grave concern for us as it will lead to scale up the prices of petroleum products, he said. He further indicated that gas would be supplied to Punjab through LPG from 2012 and gas pipeline would be laid from Karachi to Lahore in this respect. Officials of OGDCL informed the committee that 134 licenses had been issued to different oil companies and work on 31 field sites of Balochistan and KP have been stopped while 26 trillion and 62b cft gas reserves are available in the country. Officials of ministry of petroleum also gave briefing to this parliamentary panel with regard to ongoing gas crisis in the country. Secretary Petroleum told the committee that the Prime Minister had given approval for the appointments of four managing directors of oil and gas companies.