Sir: Can the Minister of Energy and Power, Mr Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, justify the need and amount spent on the establishment of RLNG terminals in the past three years, versus the amount spent on local exploration of oil and gas in Pakistan? Pakistan was ranked 29th in the World for the availability of local natural gas, and in 2010 a USAID survey increased the estimated amount of local natural gas by three times. Since that time, there has been a minimum effort on surveying and drilling for local natural gas in Pakistan. Although the Ministry claims that they have awarded a number of blocks to different organisations, they fail to mention that most of the blocks were allotted during President Musharraf’s time. They also fail to mention that no work has commenced on the allotted blocks since that time, and there is no concentrated effort by the Ministry to expedite the work on these blocks. Ironically, no work has commenced even on the blocks allotted to organisations working under the Ministry, like OGDCL, etc. Besides natural gas, it is also very disappointing to see the Ministry working day and night to establish RLNG terminals to import natural gas into Pakistan, but they have failed to establish new oil refineries and crackers that can convert the local produced crude oil into usable oil products and chemicals. Instead, Pakistan has become a net exporter of crude oil and importer of oil products. Furthermore, the Minister’s claims that the RLNG import will end gas load shedding for consumers don’t have substance as the RLNG is priced only to benefit CNG and industrial users and can never be cost effective to residential consumers. SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER Peshawar