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Islamabad: The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum, chaired by Senator Umer Farooq, convened today at the Parliament House to deliberate significant policy changes affecting captive power plants and the broader energy sector.
According to Senate of Pakistan, the meeting addressed the government’s current stance on ceasing gas supply to captive power plants, which has raised concerns among senators and industry stakeholders. Senator Mohsin Aziz articulated apprehensions regarding the caretaker government’s capacity to enforce such critical decisions and criticized the administration for multiple gas price hikes. The debate centered around the inefficiencies and audit failures of 1,180 operational captive power plants consuming substantial gas volumes daily.
Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik briefed the committee on structural disparities in the energy sector, particularly the uneven electricity costs that disadvantage some industries. The session also covered updates on the performance of government-held private company HPL, with discussions on enhancing local oil and gas production and the importation of LNG.
The committee agreed to continue the discussion in an in-camera session and has requested further briefings on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and other strategic initiatives aimed at addressing the annual gas availability shortage reported by Minister Malik. The ongoing efforts to attract significant investment and streamline governance in state-owned enterprises were also highlighted.
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