Exceptional growth in petroleum sector: PM

islamabad — Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said the petroleum sector witnessed an exceptional growth during last five years as the government introduced solid measures to bridge demand and supply gap.

Addressing a Press conference here to highlight major milestones achieved by the government in the petroleum sector, he said enhancing local gas production and import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at lowest rates and the cross-country pipelines from Iran and Turkmenistan were among the steps taken to meet the energy needs.

The prime minister, who also holds the charge of Ministry of Petroleum, said the country’s total energy consumption stood at 80 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2017 which was a 23 per cent more than in 2013.

He said that the domestic gas sector experienced a nominal increase in rates from Rs106 to Rs110 in years 2013 and 2018, respectively.

He said the agreement reached with consensus by the Council of Common Interests paved way for issuing of 46 new licences and 51 new leases, while 73 facilities were converted to new policies.

He said 116 new discoveries were made which increased 35,000 barrel oil, adding that the biggest long-term achievement in the country’s history was production of an additional quantity of gas which was used during last five years.

The prime minister said drilling of 445 new wells was a record, of which 221 were of exploratory nature and added that earlier no such discoveries were made in last 30 years. —APP