PESHAWAR - The terminated general manager (GM) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Development Company (KP-OGDCL), Nazirul Haq, on Tuesday urged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Parvez Khattak to appoint technical experts on Nowshera block to save millions of dollars from falling into a quagmire.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club, Nazir said that Nowshera block lacks the potential to produce oil and gas as it is an area enriched of metaphoric rocks. He claimed that the KP-OGDCL would demand $42 million for the Nowshera block but the amount would be wasted because there is no chance to get oil and gas from the said block. He alleged that Nowshera block had spent a huge amount of Rs5.5 million on non-process data procedure.

“The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company wanted to make the chief minister happy and all the actions on the block has been taken according to the wishes of the CEO” he alleged and blamed that the officer was not able to produce even a single barrel oil during the last three years. “In August last I did join the KP-OGCL as General Manager Exploration, while I had also served for 10 years in a British company as geologist and retired from an Italian company, and then I joined the company because I want to contribute and server for my province” the sacked GM said.

 He maintained that there were five block including Lakki, Kohat, Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan-West and Dera Ismail Khan-East. “We cannot expect from the Nowshera block to produced oil or gas because the land is consisting of metaphoric rocks and spending a huge amount on it is nothing more than to waste the million dollars on a useless project” he added.

He alleged that there was no technical expert and experienced person in the KP-OGDCL to properly manage the blocks. He said, “On December 2, I was told to step down from my post while on I received a termination letter on December 8.