Baloch elders' help sought for oil, gas exploration

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources has sought help from Baloch tribal elders and politicians to do away with the security concerns of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to carry out oil and gas exploration and production activities in the area to meet the energy needs of the country.
The committee met here on Thursday at the OGDCL head office under the chairmanship of Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas to discuss the exploration and drilling activities with special reference to the province of Balochistan and the performance of the OGDCL during the last five years.
It noted that Balochistan had great potential for oil and gas reserves and called for making a conducive environment to carry out exploration activities in an appropriate manner and suggested that parliamentarians and tribal elders should play their due role in facilitating the OGDCL in exploration activities.
The committee underlined the need for intensifying efforts to explore new reserves of oil and gas to meet the growing demand and bridge over the supply and demand gap to protect the common man from the impact of unprecedented hike in the prices of petroleum products. It was pointed out that surging oil prices had far greater consequences for developing countries like Pakistan than the developed ones.
Members of the committee were of the view that there was a dire need to intensify search for new reserves as the previous ones had been depleting at a fast pace.
They recommended that the OGDCL should also go for offshore ventures, as there was huge potential in that area to meet the future demands of the country.
It also constituted a sub committee, which will comprise senators from Balochistan with a view to remove the bottle necks in the way and address the security concerns.
Senator Dilawar Abbas opined that world was energy hungry and Pakistan should strive to enhance the reserves by working on both the offshore and onshore exploration activities.