Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi has said the government has ensured cost effective and efficient supply of gas to all the consumers in the country.

Enumerating government's performance in oil and gas sector at a news conference in Islamabad today( Wednesday), he said we have addressed the issue of gas shortages and today the world's  prominent companies are expressing interest to invest billions of dollars in the LNG sector.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan is being dubbed as a success story in the LNG sector and the price of imported gas is lowest in the world. As a result of this imported gas, the wheel of industry and fertilizers has been revived.

Additional imported gas will also be provided to the domestic consumers.  

The Prime Minister said that the power generation from the gas is also helping produce cheap electricity and helping save billions of dollars in foreign exchange.  Gas fired plants are more efficient than those powered by the furnace oil. 

He reminded that Pakistan imported one million tons of fertilizer when it assumed the power in 2013. However as a result of availability of sufficient gas, we were able to export six hundred thousand tons of fertilizer last year.

The Prime Minister said that one hundred and sixteen oil and gas discoveries were made during the last five years which is a record. These discoveries added thirty five thousand barrel of oil and nine hundred million cubic feet of gas to the system. 

He said four hundred and forty five wells were drilled during this period. Of these two hundred and twenty five were exploratory wells. He said the total discoveries reflect the success rate of fifty percent which is a great achievement.

Shahid Khaqan Abbassi said that we laid transmission line of seventeen hundred kilometer of forty two inch diameter at a cost of two hundred billion rupees.

We have also made arrangements for the laying of North South Pipeline with the cooperation of Russia and China.

In addition, the Prime Minister said we also laid distribution pipelines of twenty five thousand kilometer which is a record.

He said over the last five years, two million new gas connections were provided and these were provided through a transparent mechanism.

About the TAPI project, the Prime Minister said work on this important project is continuing and the country will start receiving gas from it by 2020.

(Radio Pakistan)