Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif-led federal government has decided to offer Pakistan’s oil and gas sector to China for investment and demanded to include this sector in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Daily Times learnt on Friday that the government is now going to offer extraordinary incentives to Chinese oil and gas companies in a bid to woo them to invest in this sector, which has tremendous potential and opportunities for growth.

In a steering committee meeting – held a few weeks ago in Beijing and participated by the Chief Ministers of the four provinces – the issue to include this sector in the CPEC was discussed at length. The authorities decided to offer the oil and gas sector to Chinese companies, said an official on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on this sensitive issue.

To follow up the decision made in China, a Pakistani delegation, led by Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) Managing Director, Zahid Mir and including OGDCL Executive Director (Joint Venture) Masood Nabi and other senior officers from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, left for China on Friday to hold talks with Chinese oil and gas companies.

The government of Pakistan has sent this powerful delegation to China in a hurry, and the schedule of the delegation’s departure was kept a secret, as the government officials were reluctant to speak on this issue and just said that talks with China on this “tricky” issue are at the preliminary stage. They said that the official version could be released following the outcome of these bilateral negotiations.

A source said that the Pakistani delegation from the oil and gas sector would hold talks with Chinese company POLY-GCL Petroleum Group Holdings Limited that is already involved in oil and gas sector in others countries, including Ethiopia – an African country blessed with huge natural resources.

A well-placed source confirmed that OGDCL has a lot of concession agreements with the Ministry of Petroleum for exploring oil and gas reserves in Balochistan, but due to scarcity of funds, these blocks were yet to be explored.

A high-level delegation will hold talks with the senior hierarchy of POLY-GCL and will offer some oil and gas blocks from Balochistan to the Chinese company for investment. Assurance will also be offered that foolproof security will be provided to companies.

The source further said that POLY-GCL has been producing a huge quantity of LNG from its Ethiopia operations, and it is likely that the government of Pakistan might purchase LNG products from this company.

A senior officer in the Petroleum Ministry said that POLY-GCL also wanted to benefit from the OGDCL experience in the area of development of oilfields, and after mutual understanding, OGDCL experts could go to China for developing oilfields that had already been explored.

The source said that inclusion of the oil and gas sector in the CPEC project had been decided by the highest authorities of the country, and with their consent the OGDCL delegation left for China to present a lucrative picture of the oil and gas sector of Pakistan to the Chinese company in order to woo them for investment.

Pakistan has abundant natural resources, but due to paucity of funds and corruption, these natural treasures cannot be tapped, causing an energy crisis in the country.

When Daily Times contacted Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Petroleum Secretary Arshad Mirza for their comment on the likelihood of including the oil and gas sector in the CPEC, both of them remained silent. It is pertinent to mention here that China, under the CPEC project, is going to invest more than $57 billion in Pakistan.