ISLAMABAD - Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar assured the National Assembly on Monday that gas loadshedding would be finished in the upcoming February. Replying to a question raised during the question hour session, the Minister said that the gap between demand and supply caused gas loadshedding, while the usage of the gas was also increased in January and February that resulted into the loadshedding. After a month, the domestic use of gas will reduce due to proper sunlight, Naveed said. He also denied the reports regarding shortage of fuel reserves in the country. He also criticised previous government for issuing a large number of NOCs for CNG stations while ignoring the supply. To another supplementary question, the Minister said the rates of petrol and its products were set by international market. He also informed the House that petrol and petroleum products were imported from the Gulf region mainly from Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, besides a small volume from Malaysia and Singapore. Import of petroleum products was outsourced to Oil Marketing Companies whereby OMCs have been made responsible for arranging imports from international market on the basis of cost competitiveness through open tenders. He stated that there was a long-term contract of PSO with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation for about three million tonnes of diesel per annum for 3 years period up to December 2011. Supplies were made on C&F basis and payment terms were on 30-day credit basis. To another question, he said six oil and gas discoveries had been made during the last six months with aggregate oil production of 4,716 barrels per day and 31 million cubic feet of gas per day. To another question, he said Saindak Copper Project in Balochistan produced copper, gold, silver and iron worth over 111 million dollars during the first ten months of the last year. He said that efforts were being made to increase the blister copper production to 20,000 tonnes annually. The Minister further told that expanded BPL (Bosicar Pakistan Limited) refinery would come on line within this year while groundbreaking of Khalifa Coastal Refinery in Balochistan would also be performed this year. To a question, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs, Dr Babar Awan, told the Lower House of the Parliament that Asian Development Bank did not provide any fund during 2008-09 for the judiciary of the country. However, he stated that Rs 500 million were allocated in the PSDP for Technical Assistance (TA) component of AJP, out of which Rs 350 million were earmarked as ADB share, but due to closure of TA Loan the amount was restricted to GoP share that was Rs 150 million. Hence an amount of Rs 350 million was not allowed for utilisation in the financial year 2008-09. To a supplementary question by MNA Dr Donia Aziz, the Minister said that there was no plan to computerise land revenue record. However he appreciated the idea and said that it could be implemented. He also told that the ministry was planning to establish digital libraries for all bar rooms in the country. Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi told the House that three water treatment plants were working in Karachi but their capacity was not sufficient due to which 411 million gallon sewerage water was going untreated. Talking about K3 project, Hameed said that Sindh government required Rs 13.49 billion for the project. He told that four treatment plants would be installed in this project with 50 million gallon treatment capacity. To a supplementary question, he said that Sindh did not have sufficient amount to start this project so that the ministry was contacting Federal Government and international donors. Regarding contamination in Rawal Dam, he said there had been 100 percent increase in the number of persons suffering from the waterborne diseases. A meeting would be held in this month to review the situation at Rawal Dam, he added.