Government adds 10,000MW power to national grid: PM

ISLAMABAD: The government has added around 10,000 megawatt electricity to the national grid and it is striving to produce electricity to meet country’s needs for the next 15 years.

Currently the country has surplus production of gas and all the consumers are getting uninterrupted supply. This was stated by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday while addressing the annual function of Mari Petroleum Company here. He emphasised the need to enhance the volume of indigenous energy resources to cope with country’s needs and reduce the burden of import bill on the national economy.

The premier spoke high of the company’s valuable contribution to mitigate the energy crisis in the country besides playing its role to ensure food security.

The annual event was attended by a large number of company’s staffers and their families as the event also coincided with the golden jubilee celebrations of the company.

Abbasi commended the company for celebrating the year of highest revenue and production and congratulated the company and its staff for achieving distinction in the sector. He said Mari always performed exceptionally and said he had also been pushing the OGDCL and PPL to excel in the same way.

The prime minister said energy was a basic block of the national economy with exploration and production sector being its key component. Lauding the company for achieving the targets ahead of the schedule, the prime minister said owing to the efforts of Mari Petroleum, the country had not only achieved self-sufficiency in fertilizer, but has also started exporting the product. He commended Mari Petroleum for undertaking production enhancement initiatives in Mari Field and other blocks to help the country in bridging the ever increasing gap between demand and supply of energy.

He expressed the hope that Mari Petroleum would also extend its operations in the shale and offshore gas sectors to explore the yet untapped potential of the country. He said the company’s effort to provide uninterrupted gas supply to downstream customers for the last five decades was an unmatched achievement that had made Mari Field a model for all other operators in the country to follow.

The prime minister also distributed awards among the employees of the company who had excelled in both technical and non-technical fields.

Earlier, in his welcome speech MD Mari Petroleum, Lt. Gen. (retd) lshfaq Nadeem Ahmad highlighted the company’s achievements. He said the company during the recently concluded financial year produced 32.32 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOEs) energy compared with 30.48 million BOEs produced in the last year. He said we continued with our strong financial performance and the gross sales reached the highest ever level of Rs96.78 billion from Rs94.99 billion in the last year.

Similarly, net sales, which was true reflection of the Company's operational performance, reached unprecedented level of Rs28.28 billion from RS21.71 billion in the last year, he added.

The MD MPCL further said that the company also contributed Rs74.3 billion to the government exchequer in the form of royalty, taxes, levies and duties.

The company has won a number of awards from various independent bodies not only for its financial and operational performance and reporting but also for its management, HSE, HR and CSR practices.