KARACHI - Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the White Oil Pipeline Mogas (WOPM) project will help achieve economic growth target, while it will also bring oil prices down by Rs 1.5 per litre.
“We have changed energy landscape of the country in four years and today we use best standard oil of the world. I am sure this project will be completed timely as this project will reduce cost since our fuel consumption has been increasing by 20 percent on yearly basis,” said Abbasi while speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of WOPM project at Port Qasim on Friday. This is the project of Pak Arab Pipeline Company Limited (Papco).
Premier Abbasi further said that this project would also strengthen economic growth of the county. He assured the transporters that this project would back them in transporting fuel and their business would not be affected since tankers are the backbone of fuel supply.
The project will address the growing energy needs of the country as the government is committed to facilitate and encourage construction of new oil pipeline projects, Abbasi concluded.
Speaking on the occasion, Papco Chairman Jalal Sikandar Sultan said: “White Oil Pipeline Mogas is not an ordinary project since it is built for commercial purposes alone. It is primarily a project to augment the energy infrastructure and streamline the oil logistics of the country.”
He said that the project’s immense socio-economic and strategic benefits by way of cheaper, faster and safer transportation of fuel, reduced road maintenance, congestion and accidents and lower levels of environmental pollution.
Papco CEO Shujauddin Ahmed said: “We are grateful to the prime minister for accepting our invitation. PAPCO has invested about US$134 million in building and streamlining the country’s energy related infrastructure, and White Oil Pipeline project is an outstanding example of public-private partnership for augmenting the country’s energy infrastructure.”
“It has increased the depth and reliability of the oil logistics and thereby facilitated sustained economic growth as well as strengthened the national defence factor. It has also helped to boost the confidence of Pakistani professionals in their ability to successfully implement similar mega-infrastructure projects in the future,” added the CEO.
“With the advent of better global reforms in transportation of white oil across different territories interlinked via land routes, the safest and the most efficient and economical mode of transportation is through the pipeline structure. Unfortunately, the consumers in Pakistan continue to face the brunt of increased cost exposures due to the inefficient means of transportation adopted in the country for transportation of crude/refined oil inside Pakistan,” said the CEO.
The pipeline has been successfully contributing over Rs 115 billion in terms of savings for the consumers of Pakistan in addition to adding massive storage facilities and reducing significant road degradation and safety exposure. The said project envisages a construction period of 24 months and is expected to commence operations by mid of 2019.
Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Federal Secretary Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) & Papco Chairman Jalal Sikandar Sultan, DESCON Engineering Chairman Razzak Dawood and other guests were also present on the occasion.
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