Senate committee calls for probe into 'under-utilization' of PGPC's LNG Terminal 2

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum in its meeting on Monday called for undertaking a probe into the of under-utilization of LNG Terminal 2 at Port Qasim Authority, ARY News reported.

According to details, the Senate committee questioned as to why the Pakistan GasPort Consortium (PGPC) terminal is under-utilized and why power division doesn’t give adequate demands for gas production to the terminal.

The committee expressed serious concerns as to why such a huge terminal was built and wrong assumptions about demand were made which are not being made now when the terminal is operational.

The committee members took strong cognizance of the fact that the terminal is working at 54% of its capacity and consequently the government has so far paid 45 million dollars as idle charges for under-utilization in the nine months passed so far.

The committee was of the view that the terms of contract should be well thought out as to not put the government at a disadvantage as the other party has taken a matter of penalties for dispute resolution and huge payments to government are pending.

The committee members questioned whether the plant was needed at all and has there been a mismatch in the policies of the government.

The committee also took up details of loans taken by Pakistan State Oil in local and foreign exchange from banks and details of pending inquiries by external agencies against PSO officials.

The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz here at the Parliament House on Monday and was attended among others by Senators Sardar Muhammad Azam Khan Musakhel, Lt. Gen (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi, Shamim Afridi, Taj Muhammad Afridi, Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Additional Secretary Petroleum, Chairperson Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Uzma Adil, Managing Director Pakistan LNG Limited and other officials.

The committee members were told that PSO has as of today receivables amounting to 240 billion rupees and if the power sector makes its payments on time then PSO would not need to take loans to continue its operations.

The committee recommended timely payments to PSO by the power sector. PSO was also asked to hold an inquiry into fake lubricants being sold in the name of PSO. Expedition of inquiries and bringing them to a logical end was also recommended by the Committee.

Regarding the matter of lorries carrying oil,  the committee noted with contribution from OGRA that any and all containers with oil and petroleum products should be given clearance to move only if they are NHA compliant, have explosives clearing certificate and are weight compliant also and if any untoward incident occurs action will be taken against the concerned oil management company.