Board of directors of all oil, gas companies to be reconstituted: Sarwar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and National Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Friday said all the board of directors of oil and gas companies would be reconstituted to provide appropriate representation to all the provinces.

“These boards will have equal representation from the public and private sectors to provide an opportunity to high professionals to serve these companies in the oil and gas exploring and delivery sectors,” Ghulam Sarwar Khan said while addressing a press conference along with Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal in Quetta.

The minister said the government attached top priority to the progress and prosperity of the people of Balochistan and would provide them all possible representation in the mainstream institutions.

He said he was visiting Balochistan on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan and had held constructive talks with the provincial leadership to resolve issues facing the province in a coordinated manner.

Khan added that he had already visited Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the same purpose.

“The federal government will work in close liaison with the Balochistan government to resolve all the problems pointed out by the provincial chief minister, addressing their sense of deprivation,” he said.

The petroleum minister also said working groups and committees had already been set up to finalize and submit their recommendations within a specific time frame to chalk-out a comprehensive policy on exploring the natural resources throughout the country.

“The process of dialogue and interaction would help adopt a cohesive and inclusive national policy to deal with the prevailing challenges effectively,” he added. “The ground breaking for the establishment of a state of the art oil refinery in Gwadar will soon be performed.”

He said the Saudi Arabian crown prince was expected to visit Pakistan next month during which a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed for the construction of the oil refinery. “The Saudi Arabian energy minister would visit Gwadar on Saturday to inspect the land allocated for the proposed refinery.”

Khan went on to say that China had no concerns over the Saudi Arabian investment in Gwadar and the Balochistan government had also been taken on board on that matter.

“It was the government’s priority to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas to the domestic, commercial and export oriented industry. The government had given subsidy on gas to the tune of 125 billion rupees and still the gas tariff was lower in Pakistan as compared to the regional countries.”

Responding to a question, he said, 14 billion rupees were being spent for provision of LPG mix to the towns and cities in Balochistan. “Land had already been acquired for the establishment of about 26 plants for this purpose.”

Earlier, the Balochistan chief minister enumerated the key issues facing the province in different sectors and urged the federal government to provide the requisite support to the provincial government in resolving those problems.