ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Petroleum Senator Dr Musadik Malik on Tuesday informed the National Assembly that the government would bring an ‘aggressive incentives package’ for facilitation of exploration and production (E&P) companies so that they could step up their activities in potential areas and find the much-needed new reservoirs of oil and gas in the country. “The existing gas deposits are depleting at the rate of around 10 percent annually and the shortage is being met through the imported LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), which are expensive,” he said while responding to a calling attention notice, moved by Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Shahida Rehmani and Ramesh Lal regarding shortage of gas in NA-249, Karachi. The minister said there was the need to increase the production capacity and make new discoveries to meet the country’s ever-growing energy needs. “We want to focus on new finds and reduce reliance on imported fuel.” Commenting on the gas shortage in NA-249, the petroleum minister said short and long-term corrective measures were being taken and the commodity supply situation in the areas of Baldia Town and Saeedabad, located at the tail-end of the SSGC network, would improve. Explaining, he said the shortage was due to natural depletion of gas in the wells connected with the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) that would be tackled by induction of two new wells having cumulative production of around 30 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) of gas within 7-8 days, for which a summary had already been moved for testing of wells. “I have the list of six wells that are drying up and causing shortages of around 55-60 MMCFD gas,” he said. The minister said 24-inch and 16-inch diameter and high-pressure pipelines were also being laid to resolve the low gas pressure issue in the area, besides complete rehabilitation of the 20-kilometre old pipeline.