Khyber Pakthunkhwa Government has proposed Rs40 billion development package for exploration of oil and gas activities in merged tribal districts in upcoming budget 2021-22 to fulfill Pakistan’s growing energy and fuel demands.
Engineer Muhammad Luqman, Senior Planning Officer, KP Energy and Power Department told APP on Monday that a special development package worth Rs40 billion were proposed for inclusion in ADP-2021-22 for exploration of oil and gas activities in merged areas (erstwhile Fata) blessed with abundance of oil and gas reservoirs.
“Today, KP is producing 52 percent of crude oil, 11 percent of gas and 40 percent of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) of the country from just two-exploration blocks. The development package has been exclusively prepared to increase its production through exploring of new oil and gas reservoirs in seven tribal districts,” he said.
Funds would be allocated from Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP) and royalty for investment in various exploration and production blocks of the merged areas through joint venture partnerships with Khyber Pakthunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL), resulting in considerable direct revenue generation of around Rs13 billion per year by 2025.
The massive package would help accelerate pace of economic and industrial activities and create employment opportunities for thousands of skilled and non-skilled workforce in South Waziristan, Kurram, North Waziristan, Orakzai, Khyber, Bajaur and Mohmand tribal districts.
“Economies are run on Oil and Gas.
KP especially its merged areas are very rich in oil and gas reservoirs and if this potential is fully taped, would help give upward boom to economic development and industrialization besides promoting infant industries in presence of an abundance of labour and lands,” he said.
He said there were multibillion Dollar worth of oil and gas reservoirs in these areas and KP Government was paving a road map of economic prosperity, employment generation and poverty alleviation.
Engr Luqman said an increased production of oil and gas would prove as game changer for the province, attracting mega uplift projects including power plants, fertilizers and oil refinery besides bringing positive improvement in people’s lives under fast-tracked exploration and production activities at large scale.
Realizing importance of development of KP’s southern districts, which had been neglected in past despite of being oil and gas’ producing districts, he said gasification of more than 110 village consisting of 70,000 households in Kohat Division through a mega project worth Rs9 billion would be ensured.
A state-of-art Petroleum Institute at Karak worth Rs 2.053 billion was being established jointly by Federal and KP Government, he said, adding it would become a center of excellence for people of Pakistan especially for KP.
Engr Luqman said diploma courses in drilling, petroleum, electrical, instrumentation related to oil and gas etc would be offered by the institute to prepare skilled workforce and qualified supporting staff for operational sites of oil and gas fields and overseas employment.
