Senate body lends full support to IPI project
By Asghar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum & Natural Resources, which met at the Parliament House Wednesday under the Chairmanship of Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas, has lent its unqualified support to the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) Gas Pipeline Project and called upon the Government to ensure its implementation and final commissioning within the stipulated timeframe by expediting matters nationally at the Government level as well as bilaterally. It urges fast track approach to settle the remaining outstanding issues hampering this project of vital national importance.
The Committee also directed the Ministry to brief the Committee on the progress of the project after every 6-8 weeks.
The Committee further directed the Ministry to ensure Hydro Desulphurization of Diesel by the Oil Refineries in Pakistan in accordance with the European Standards to achieve the Euro-II specification of HSD by 2010. It expresses its deep concern over the fact that higher sulphur contents in diesel has worsened the problem of vehicular emissions and posing a serious threat to public health and environment.
“The add ons were allowed to oil refineries back in early 2000s to reduce sulphur and this grace period ended in 2003 but these could neither improve their quality nor pass on the benefit to the end users i.e. consumers” it observed. “Rest of the world had already achieved this target back in 1993 however, we would do so in 2010”. The Committee recommended that any refinery not complying with the instructions regarding sulphur contents should not be allowed to sell its product as human health is more important than everything else.
The Committee also expresses its concern and dismay over increase in LPG prices every year during winter and its shortage and directed the Ministry to activate OGRA in this connection. It said that the authority must monitor the prices regularly so that the gas remains available to the general public at a reasonable price. It also instructed them to make sure that ban on its export remain fully implemented. The meeting urged the Government to come up with a comprehensive CNG policy and not to allow CNG stations in over crowded localities and areas. The Committee wanted the Government to examine the possibility of the use of ethanol as an alternate fuel as currently is being done in many countries of the world. “Why this experiment has failed in Pakistan?” it inquired. It observed that Pakistan being an energy deficient country must explore all avenues to over come the supply demand gap especially in view of rapid growth in the economy and to maintain competitiveness of our exports in the industrial sector.
The meeting asked the Government to ensure that sub-standard gas heaters are not sold in the market as a lot many people die every year in winter due to suffocation and leakage of gas from these heaters by prescribing a fixed safety standard.
The Chairman of the Committee asked the Ministry and the Government to redouble its efforts for securing more investment local as well as foreign in the oil & gas sector for greater exploration and to ensure safety of the experts / technicians working on the oil & gas fields all over the country.
Earlier, the Committee was given a detailed presentation on the IPI Gas Pipeline Project and availability and price of LPG during winters in addition to allocation of gas to industry and domestic consumers.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Senators Muhammad Sarwar Khan Kakar, Haroon Khan, Muhammad Talha Mehmood, Dr. Ismail Buledi and Mrs. Rukhsana Zuberi besides the Minister of State for Petroleum Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal and senior officials of the Ministry of Petroleum, SNGPL.