Senate panel seeks 20-year record of oil and gas royalties paid to provinces

A Senate petroleum sub-committee has asked the Petroleum Ministry and Sindh’s finance and energy departments for a 20-year account of royalties paid by oil and gas explorers to provincial governments. Profit by Pakistan Today reported that members were dissatisfied with Oil and Gas Development Company Limited’s (OGDCL) figures, which covered only a decade and did not show how payments matched production.

The committee directed OGDCL to provide annual production and royalty data from 1995, and sought a legal explanation for its production-bonus exemption. Officials differed on the exemption’s scope: OGDCL linked it to certain fields developed from 1990 to 1993, while a petroleum concessions representative said it applied to the Sinjhoro Block under a 1997 agreement. Separately, Sui Southern Gas Company said a proposed project to connect 31 villages near the Gobi field was awaiting federal funding; the committee also raised questions about local hiring and LPG adulteration enforcement.