ISLAMABAD - Stressing to urgently announce Gas Load Management Plan, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has directed the Petroleum Ministry to devise a comprehensive strategy to meet soaring energy needs particularly gas and petroleum for the upcoming two years. The Prime Minister advised this while talking to Dr Asim Hussain, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources who called on him at the PMs House on Wednesday to brief him about his recent visit to Iran and his meeting with the Iranian Minister for Energy. Asim Hussain informed the Prime Minister that Iran has completed installation of 1100km of gas pipeline on its side and the progress on Pakistani side, which started on May 9th, is quite satisfactory under the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project. He further talked about import of electricity from Iran and an Iranian team of experts would be arriving in Pakistan soon to assess the details of the project particularly establishing connection with our National Grid. While briefing, Petroleum Minister shared progress on the LNG Terminal. He was of the view that work on KPD (Kunner Pasaki Deep) has started and 100 MMCF of gas will be available from October this year. He said that 17 international bidders including Shell, Vital, GDF, Norwegian Fund and Daewoo Group have shown Expression of Interest (EoI) towards the supply of energy/gas to Pakistan During this meeting, the Prime Minister reiterated governments commitment to explore all possible options to ensure availability of electricity and gas in the country. He expressed confidence that besides tapping indigenous sources, agreements with other regional countries to meet our energy needs would bear positive results. It is relevant to mention that on April 14th, 2011 Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources to consult all the major stakeholders to come up with solutions to minimise the problems of the industry and the common man. Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Resources had been further asked to invite the relevant stakeholders including representatives of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), fertiliser industry, power plants, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce Industry (FPCCI), Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), gas companies and others for analysing the gas shortage situation and rationalising distribution, so that the problems of the people and various sectors could be reduced substantially.